Critic Review

This release of Chatto’s Isle Pinot Noir sits backward in the palate, with oak pushing slightly forward. It needs air and time. In pinot terms it has an imposing form, its cherry flavours deep and black, its smoke and spice notes diving for the depths. The tannin here. It bleeds earth and spice. It does not suffer fools. It doesn’t take the fruit flavours by the hand; it grabs the wine by the scruff of its neck and insists that it make good of the future. No wine is an island but this wine is an isle by name and by nature, in that it stands atop its heap and leads. There’s an authority to this wine. There’s depth, substance, a hinterland of flavour, a farmer’s promise, a handshake of soil and riches.

96 Points The Wine Front