The warm summer and modest cropping levels of 2008 provided the Dunbabin family with an excellent Pinot Noir harvest at our Milton Vineyard on Tasmania's East Coast. The property's fruit was hand-picked in mid-April and made into wine by award-winning contract winemaker Julian Alcorso, at Winemaking Tasmania.

Deep rich crimson and black cherry colour with intensely concentrated ripe cherry nose, it has an excellent depth of flavour and a finely balanced tannin structure. The 2008 vintage produced ripe fruit from a perfectly dry autumn with small berries resulting in a rich wine of great intensity.

The 2008 Pinot Noir was produced from grapes grown in our homestead block planted in 1998 and from the earlier, 1992 planted vines grown on the stoney red soils of our Cranbrook block. This wine is very much an expression of the soil and climate that produced it. Coupled with the personal care and hand tending the vines received the wine is a lovely luscious Pinot Noir.

The 2005 vintage was awarded a silver medal at the Tasmanian Wine Show. This wine is complex and interesting and will continue to improve until peak drinking 2011.