2024 Heroes Vineyard Otway Hinterland Pinot Noir

An extraordinary small-production Pinot Noir

Absolute star of the Heroes range

97 Points – Halliday Wine Companion
96 Points – The R Review
95 Points – The Wine Front

Otway Hinterland, Victoria

RRP $75 a bottle

97 Halliday Points – This Is the Wine That Puts Heroes Vineyard on the Map

Now we're getting to the absolute star of the Heroes range.

The 2024 Heroes Vineyard Otway Hinterland Pinot Noir is an extraordinary small-production Pinot Noir from James Thomas' original Heroes Vineyard in the cool, remote Otway Hinterland.

And the reviews are outstanding:

97 Points – Halliday Wine Companion
96 Points – The R Review
95 Points – The Wine Front

This is Pinot Noir from an unirrigated, organically farmed vineyard, planted to MV6 and Abel clones, yielding an incredibly low 0.85kg of fruit per vine.

It's wild fermented with 30% whole bunch, undergoes natural malolactic fermentation, spends 10 months in French oak with just 25% new, and is bottled without fining.

And production?

Just 180 cases.

At RRP $75, this isn't simply an interesting little Pinot Noir from an obscure corner of Victoria.

This is serious Australian Pinot Noir.

97 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

97 Points – Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion

This is a huge result.

Halliday describes a medium-bodied Pinot Noir built around pure red fruits, floral characters, allspice and autumnal complexity, with silky, persistent tannins, bright acidity and a long mineral finish.

Philip Rich's conclusion is particularly telling:

“Worth every cent and more.”

That's exactly the point.

At $75, we're not talking about a $150–$200 flagship Pinot receiving 97 points.

We're talking about a tiny-production wine from a virtually unknown vineyard in the Otways.

And Halliday has put it firmly among Australia's elite Pinot Noirs.

96 Points – The R Review

And the picture becomes even more compelling.

Three independent critics have landed between 95 and 97 points on this wine.

That's serious consensus.

The quality isn't coming from sheer concentration or ripeness either.

Everything about the wine points towards finesse, perfume, tannin quality, savouriness and length.

This is Pinot Noir for people who want complexity rather than simple fruit power.

95 Points – The Wine Front

Put the three scores together:

97 Halliday | 96 R Review | 95 Wine Front

That's an exceptional set of reviews for a $75 Australian Pinot Noir.

And once you understand where it comes from and how little was produced, the wine becomes even more compelling.

Tasting Notes

The 2024 Heroes Pinot Noir is beautifully complex, showing:

• Red cherry
• Black cherry
• Blood plum
• Cranberry
• Violets
• Rosehips
• Pink peppercorn
• Allspice
• Cinnamon
• Dried thyme
• Autumn leaves
• Bramble
• Mushroom
• Charcuterie
• Wet stone
• Rhubarb
• Leather
• Fine French oak

Heroes' own tasting note emphasises violets, black cherry, autumnal bramble, rosehips, pink peppercorn, thyme and cinnamon, followed by cherry, blood plum, charcuterie, wet stone and rhubarb through the palate.

That's a seriously complex flavour spectrum.

But perhaps the most exciting thing is the structure.

Silky tannin. Bright acidity. Mineral drive. Persistent length.

This isn't Pinot Noir that gives you everything in the first five seconds.

It keeps unfolding.

The Original Heroes Vineyard

This is the flagship.

Heroes makes its Anti-Hero wines from selected vineyards elsewhere in the Otway Hinterland, Mount Gambier and Henty.

But the wines labelled:

Heroes Vineyard

come exclusively from the original 10-acre Otway Hinterland site.

That's where this Pinot Noir comes from.

It's the vineyard James Thomas built the entire Heroes project around.

And the 2024 vintage produced:

97-point Pinot Noir

and

96-point Chardonnay.

That's starting to look like a very serious little vineyard.

Unirrigated & Organically Farmed

One of the most important parts of the Heroes story is how the vineyard is farmed.

The site is:

Unirrigated

and:

Organically farmed.

The vineyard is not certified organic, but Halliday notes its organic farming, while the producer identifies the vineyard as unirrigated.

That matters.

James Thomas isn't simply buying expensive fruit and manufacturing a premium Pinot Noir in the winery.

The quality begins with the vineyard.

And then look at the yields.

Just 0.85kg of Fruit Per Vine

This is extraordinary.

The 2024 Pinot Noir yielded just:

0.85kg per vine

or approximately:

1 tonne per acre.

That's tiny.

We're talking about less than a kilogram of Pinot Noir fruit from each vine.

Those yields help explain why there's so much intensity in a wine that remains beautifully medium-bodied and elegant.

That's the magic.

Concentration without heaviness.

MV6 + Abel Clone Pinot Noir

Pinot lovers will appreciate this detail.

The Heroes vineyard contains two important Pinot Noir clones:

MV6 + Abel

MV6 is one of the cornerstone clones of premium Australian Pinot Noir.

Abel has a fascinating reputation of its own and is particularly associated with New Zealand Pinot Noir.

Put them together in a cool Otway vineyard and you've got some seriously interesting raw material.

The combination contributes to a wine that has both fruit purity and savoury complexity.

Sandstone, Siltstone & Sandy Clay

Then there's the geology.

The Heroes Vineyard sits on:

Tertiary sandstone and siltstone

with:

Sandy clay loams

over:

Highly penetrable clay and weathered sandstone.

That's a fascinating site for Pinot Noir.

The resulting wine has a distinctive mineral and earthy dimension running underneath its fruit.

Halliday specifically identifies the wine's mineral finish, while Heroes' own tasting note includes wet stone among the palate characters.

Pinot Noir from the Otway Hinterland

This isn't Mornington.

It isn't the Yarra.

It isn't Tasmania.

It isn't even technically Geelong.

The vineyard sits in the Otway Hinterland, much closer to Lorne than Geelong.

That's part of what makes Heroes so fascinating.

It's a cool, relatively unknown viticultural pocket producing Pinot Noir of extraordinary quality.

Andrew Graham from Australian Wine & Drinks Review noted that the wine resembles some of the best aspects of Geelong Pinot Noir, praising its combination of ripe plum and red berry fruit, mushroomy savouriness, freshness and medium-bodied feel.

This is a region worth watching.

30% Whole Bunch

The winemaking starts with:

30% Whole Bunch

The remaining fruit allows the wine to retain plenty of pure Pinot fruit while the whole bunch brings another layer of:

Perfume • Spice • Savouriness • Structure

And it shows.

Look at the aromatic profile:

Violets. Rosehips. Pink peppercorn. Allspice. Thyme. Cinnamon. Autumn leaves.

That's exactly the sort of aromatic complexity that makes great Pinot Noir so addictive.

Wild Fermentation + Natural Malo

There's no recipe-driven cultured fermentation here.

The wine undergoes:

Wild yeast fermentation

followed by:

Natural malolactic fermentation.

That's consistent with James Thomas' philosophy.

The vineyard provides the raw material.

The winery's job is to guide it rather than smother it.

10 Months French Oak – Just 25% New

The wine then spends:

10 months in French oak

with:

25% new oak.

That's beautifully judged.

There's enough new oak to contribute structure and complexity without overwhelming Pinot Noir's perfume and transparency.

The oak sits behind the:

Cherry • Plum • Florals • Spice • Earth • Herbs

rather than dominating them.

Exactly where it should be.

Bottled Without Fining

And the restrained approach continues right through to bottling.

The wine is:

Bottled without fining.

Again, the philosophy is simple.

Preserve the wine.

Preserve the texture.

Preserve the vineyard.

Don't polish away the interesting bits.

Only 180 Cases Made

Now we get to the problem.

The entire production was:

180 cases.

That's genuinely tiny production.

And Heroes normally reserves its flagship Chardonnay and Pinot Noir primarily for mailing-list members, cellar door and trade allocation.

This isn't Pinot Noir sitting in warehouses by the pallet.

There's simply not much of it.

James Thomas – From Bannockburn & Clyde Park to Heroes

James Thomas didn't arrive at Pinot Noir by accident.

Before establishing Heroes, he honed his Pinot Noir skills at Bannockburn and Clyde Park.

That Geelong background is significant.

Both producers have long histories with premium cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

But Heroes is Thomas' own expression.

And the 2024 Pinot Noir suggests he's found something very special.

Halliday's “Unsung Hero”

Halliday Wine Companion recently profiled James Thomas as an “Unsung Hero”, describing Heroes as a producer “one to watch.”

Philip Rich visited the property and said he was blown away by the entire 2024 range, calling the Pinot Noir in particular exceptional.

Look at the Halliday scores:

2024 Heroes Pinot Noir – 97

2024 Heroes Chardonnay – 96

2024 Heroes Dry Riesling – 95+

2024 Heroes Sauvignon Blanc – 95

2024 Anti-Hero Yeowarra Hill Pinot Noir – 95+

2024 Anti-Hero Yeowarra Hill Chardonnay – 94

2024 Anti-Hero Coola Road Chardonnay – 93+

That's an extraordinary strike rate.

This isn't one wine getting lucky.

The entire operation is firing.

Heroes Pinot Noir vs Australia's Big Pinot Names

This is where things get interesting.

Premium Australian Pinot Noir has moved well beyond the $100 mark.

The best bottles from the Yarra Valley, Geelong, Mornington Peninsula and Tasmania can now cost $100, $150, $200 or more.

Then you look at Heroes:

97 Halliday

96 R Review

95 Wine Front

Original 10-acre vineyard

Unirrigated

Organically farmed

0.85kg fruit per vine

MV6 + Abel clones

30% whole bunch

Wild fermented

25% new French oak

180 cases

And the RRP is:

$75.

That is an extremely compelling proposition.

Food Pairings

This deserves something good on the table.

Try it with:

• Roast duck
• Peking duck
• Duck breast
• Venison
• Quail
• Roast chicken
• Pork belly
• Beef tartare
• Wild mushroom risotto
• Truffle pasta
• Charcuterie
• Soft washed-rind cheeses

I'd go straight for duck with wild mushrooms.

The wine's combination of cherry, blood plum, mushroom, herbs, spice and autumnal characters would be superb.

Serve around 14–16°C in a large Burgundy glass.

Drinking & Cellaring

There's plenty to enjoy now.

But with this level of fruit concentration, acidity and tannin quality, I'd be very comfortable putting it away.

Drink now–2038+.

If opening it young, give it 30–60 minutes in a decanter and use a large Burgundy glass.

Young, you'll see more:

Cherry • Plum • Violet • Rose • Spice

With age, expect the:

Mushroom • Forest Floor • Leather • Dried Herbs • Earth

to become increasingly prominent.

I'd definitely cellar some.

Why We Love It

This is the bottle that makes me think Heroes Vineyard could become a seriously important name in Australian Pinot Noir.

Look at the package:

97 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

96 Points – The R Review
95 Points – The Wine Front

Original Heroes Vineyard
Otway Hinterland
Unirrigated
Organically Farmed
MV6 + Abel Clones
Only 0.85kg Fruit Per Vine
1 Tonne Per Acre
30% Whole Bunch
Wild Fermentation
Natural Malo
10 Months French Oak
25% New Oak
13.6% Alcohol
Bottled Without Fining
Only 180 Cases Produced

And then there's the wine itself.

Red cherry. Black cherry. Blood plum. Violets. Rosehips. Pink peppercorn. Allspice. Thyme. Cinnamon. Autumn leaves. Mushroom. Wet stone.

That's an extraordinary amount of complexity packed into a beautifully medium-bodied Pinot Noir.

If you love serious Australian Pinot Noir from By Farr, Bannockburn, Yarra Yering, Gembrook Hill, Giant Steps, Bindi or Bass Phillip, then Heroes Vineyard deserves to be on your radar.

Halliday's Philip Rich says it's worth every cent and more.

At $75 RRP, with scores of 97, 96 and 95 points, tiny production and this vineyard story, I agree.

97 Halliday. 96 R Review. 95 Wine Front. Only 180 cases.

The 2024 Heroes Vineyard Otway Hinterland Pinot Noir isn't just an under-the-radar discovery. It's one of the most exciting new Victorian Pinot Noirs we've come across.