New Single Vineyard 2024 reviews by Campbell Mattinson

We’re pleased to share Campbell Mattinson’s recent reviews on our Single Vineyard Release, published on The Wine Front.

Campbell has been following and writing about our wines for many years, and his long familiarity gives him a deep understanding of the Bannockburn style. His reviews are always thoughtful, perceptive, and balanced, offering readers a clear sense of style and vintage.

It’s a privilege to have our wines considered with such care, and we’re delighted to present his notes here.

All wines from this release remain available through our online shop.

Bannockburn Grigsby Chardonnay 2024
95 points.
Quite a lot of colour to this wine and powerful fruit up-front, though the finish is then as restrained as it is long. This is a honed wine if ever there was one. Nougat, grilled peach, steel, mineral, orange rind and lemongrass characters put on a powerful display, lemon blossom notes then rising through the finish. Despite its colour this is a wine with yet plenty up its sleeve. The length of the finish here though puts a significant positive emphasis on the quality on offer.

Bannockburn Winery Block Chardonnay 2024
95 points.
This is stellar. It’s a wine of both power and length and with a bit of extra character as well. Apples, peaches, slips of pear skin and nuts, perhaps some stonefruit pips as well, or certainly something that seems both fruity and woody at once. It’s not reticent or restrained but nor is it exaggerated; it’s alive with flavour, fit and firing you could say, ripped with muscle and energy. Touch and go for 96. In any case it’s superb.

Bannockburn SRH Chardonnay 2024
95+ points.
There’s flavour and texture but, even so, this feels built for the cellar, as it customarily does. Hay, oysters, saltbush and tonic notes thread through stonefruit, cream, nougat and steel. We’re looking at a wine in mid-flight; it hasn’t yet landed and/or opened its doors to the world. It will be beautiful when it does. There’s a lot of savoury complexity going on here. A lot of X factor.

Bannockburn De La Terre Pinot Noir 2024
96 points.
Some wines just have that extra something, and this is one of those wines. It’s outstanding. The length of the finish here is for the ages. It tastes of iron, cherry, woodspice, undergrowth and cedar, red rose notes in the mix too, and it firms beautifully as it mounts its final attack. One sip and I was convinced. It’s complex, tense, and exquisitely well finished.

Bannockburn Olive Tree Hill Pinot Noir 2024
95 points.
There’s polish to this wine, and a meatiness, and savoury inputs aplenty, and a long confident push through the finish. It’s Bannockburn pinot noir to a tee. Red cherry, tonic water, rhubarb, undergrowth and woodsmoke characters run into rust, steel, earth and cedar. There’s a umami aspect to this wine; indeed it runs right through it. Courtesy of this wine’s balance – and long, even flow through the finish – you could easily drink this now. But it will be a more complex delight with some years under its belt.

Bannockburn Serré Pinot Noir 2024
95 points.
The thing about this wine is the length of its finish. It’s quite stunning. It’s a super-savoury style with earth, sap, beet and decayed rose characters swimming through red cherry, poached strawberries and rhubarb. Oak is a minor player here though there’s a nuttiness to the aftertaste, and a (gently) velvety aspect to the mouthfeel. This wine is in desperate need of another 3-5 years in bottle but the length of the finish says it all in terms of its quality.