Tolpuddle
Pinot Noir
Coal River Valley
2021

The producer

Tolpuddle Vineyard is one of Australia’s most celebrated cool-climate wine projects, nestled in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley. Founded in 1988 and rejuvenated in 2011 when acquired by Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith MW of Shaw + Smith, Tolpuddle has since become a benchmark for Australian Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The site, with its gentle northeast-facing slopes and thin, silica-rich soils over sandstone, is ideally suited to producing wines of finesse, precision, and intensity. Under the meticulous care of winemaker Adam Wadewitz, Tolpuddle wines are crafted to reflect the vineyard’s unique terroir and Tasmania’s long, slow ripening conditions. With an emphasis on structure, tension, and purity of fruit, Tolpuddle has earned a cult-like reputation, frequently appearing on fine wine lists and garnering critical acclaim both in Australia and internationally.

The wine

Tolpuddle Pinot Noir is a single-vineyard wine from Tasmania’s Coal River Valley, a region prized for producing Pinot with elegance, purity, and tension. Crafted by the acclaimed Shaw + Smith team; Martin Shaw, Michael Hill Smith MW, and winemaker Adam Wadewitz, the wine reflects meticulous vineyard work and a restrained, site-focused approach in the winery. The cool climate and long growing season allow for slow ripening, building intensity without sacrificing delicacy.

Tolpuddle Pinot Noir is medium bodied, with fragrant aromatics of wild strawberry, cherry, and rose petal, layered with subtle spice, earth, and flinty minerality. Silky tannins and bright acidity frame the palate, delivering precision and length. It is a benchmark Tasmanian Pinot: vibrant, savoury, and age-worthy, offering a compelling expression of place and variety.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.