2023 Restless River Pinot Noir
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
The Restless River 2023 Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley Le Luc Pinot Noir is a single-vineyard wine grown on decomposed granite soils with quartz sandstone and iron-rich red rock. Fermented with 10% whole-cluster fruit and mostly whole berries, then aged in 228-liter barrels with 30% new oak, it is more varietally focused and sharply defined than its sibling. Orange peel, red fruit and pencil shavings lead to a wine of depth and layering, enhanced by an additional year in bottle before release. The 2023 vintage was shaped by intermittent late-season rains. Careful timing of harvest was crucial.
Critic scores
Average Score
Neal Martin
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
Salted olives, moss, red cherries, cloves and charred bark on the nose of this savory, spicy red. It’s fresh and elegant on the palate, with a medium body and tight-grained tannins. Delicious smoky, herbal undertones. Drink now or hold.
The 2023 Le Luc comes from granite soils, triple sorted with 30% whole bunch and aged for 12 months in barrel, then 18 months in bottle. This has an open-knit bouquet with raspberry and wild strawberry fruit, a touch of tomato vine and damp loam. The palate is medium-bodied with light tannins, but balanced and open, almost Grenache-like in terms of the red fruit profile and texture. Detailed and very approachable on the finish, this is a quite delicious Pinot that I would probably drink over the next five to seven years.