Ghost Rock Supernatural Pinot Noir 2025

Stuart McCloskey, tasted 1 October 2026 "The 2025 visually looks a tad more serious compared with last year’s gloriously playful and delicious release. As it turns out, that slightly more serious appearance rather sets the tone for what’s in the bottle.

This has been in our possession for a little under 24 hours and, naturally, we couldn’t resist. We popped a bottle in the fridge for an hour and served it late morning with a handful of cheese straws. Before anyone writes in, this is absolutely not a food-pairing recommendation - simply a snack for the team and me while we got down to the serious business of tasting…

To set the correct mood, we found a tune on Spotify titled ‘The Wine is OK’ by Pinot Noir. Not quite what we were expecting. Not too bad, though…

The 2025 feels a little more composed, more grown-up and more purposeful than the gloriously delicious 2024. Perhaps indicative of the vintage, although that will become clearer once I have sampled the full suite of Pinots.

There’s still plenty of fun to be had, but this feels like a wine with a little more seriousness beneath all that immediate charm. Barely an hour in the fridge and it was wonderfully expressive from the first pour. The perfume is gorgeous - fresh raspberry, wild strawberry and red cherry initially, followed by rosehip, cranberry, blood orange and a darker seam of plum. Sweet spice and dried herbs weave through the fruit, while a faint suggestion of cold black tea provides a lovely savoury counterpoint. Then come those wonderfully bitter-sweet Amaro aromatics - herbs, citrus peel and spice which exude from the glass. Simply glorious.

The palate feels beautifully put together. There’s an abundance of bright, succulent red fruit, but this isn’t simply a juicy Pinot designed for immediate gratification. Fine tannins provide shape, the acidity is wonderfully energetic and there’s a lovely sense of tension running from the first sip through to the finish.

Everything feels natural and unforced — perhaps a little obvious given the wine’s title, but at least it lives up to it! Nothing is overworked, nothing is too sweet, too extracted or too polished. The fruit simply glides across the palate - raspberry, cranberry, cherry and pomegranate - before those more savoury and spicy notes begin to creep in. There’s a gentle grip towards the finish which I particularly like. The greatest compliment I can pay it is that we demolished a bottle far too quickly. Perhaps not the most professional confession, but it’s so darn delicious.

It doesn’t attempt to compete with the depth and complexity of the producer’s single-vineyard collection, nor should it. Instead, it delivers something arguably more useful - beautifully pure, expressive Tasmanian Pinot Noir that can be opened without ceremony and thoroughly enjoyed. Serve slightly chilled or on the cooler side of room temperature. We gave it a proper Burgundy glass, too (Zalto). Smaller glasses simply won’t achieve the same effect."