Tête De Cuvée means the best wine of the vintage. This wine was born through Bill's and Dan's love of old world Pinot Noir wines and their desire to make the best Pinot Noir of which Picardy is capable.

This wine is not a reserve wine made in the usual method of selecting the best barrels for separate bottling. Instead, it is made entirely as a separate wine with a greater emphasis on intensity, complexity, structure and cellaring potential.

“Now firmly established as one of Australia’s great pinot noirs. This one is from a slightly cooler year, but the long ripening period allowed the build-up of great flavour intensity. Like many ‘19s this is still a little shy, but oh my, good things are around the corner. It’s made of 11 different Dijon clones – as is the estate pinot – and displays that firm tannin, linear acidity and supply palate that says pinot noir. Another cracker..” – Ray Jordan Wine 

In the Vineyard: 

As with the Picardy Pinot Noir, this wine is made from 10 clones (Droopy, Upright, 114, 115, 777 and 5 new clones imported from Burgundy).

The base of this wine is from a 0.1 hectare block planted to traditional old world planting density (10,000 vines per hectare) and trellis style.

The remainder of this wine is taken from a portion of the main Picardy Pinot Noir block which is crop thinned to below 5 tonnes per hectare (35 hectolitres per hectare).

In the Winery: 

To provide this wine with considerable structure and longevity, it is cold macerated for longer periods and fermented with 30% whole bunch fruit to extract more tannin.

The resultant wine is then matured in new to four year old oak for 10 months.

After barrel maturation it is given a very light filtration and bottled.

It is then held in bottle until the Pannell Family feel that it is showing its optimum potential.

The Pannell Family are confident that the Picardy Tête De Cuvée will continue to drink superbly long after it has been released.

This wine demonstrates the difference that extra attention to detail and better quality fruit can bring.