2018 Heirloom Vineyards Velvet Fog Pinot Noir Adelaide Hills Australia 750 ml

The 2018 Heirloom Velvet Fog Pinot Noir is a wine of distinct focus and supreme elegance. Grown on fairy-tale slopes in Australia’s prime Adelaide Hills region, it delivers everything we look for in premium Pinot Noir from a texture like liquid satin to the earthy, fruity, je ne sais quoi that makes luxury Pinot impossible to resist. 

This bottle (miraculously) does it without the standard $50 markup. At half that, it proves why Australia remains one of the most overlooked regions for this noble grape. We recommend stocking up before the rest of the wine-drinking world takes notice.

Given the rarity of Heirloom’s 2018 Velvet Fog, we’re thrilled we got our hands on one of the greatest Pinot values coming out of Australia today at the best price you’ll find anywhere. Over 50% of it is sold directly out of the winery door to savvy Aussies on the ground and very little of what’s left makes it off Australian shores at all. 

The 2018 is driven by a stunning red fruit intensity on the palate that remains focused and vibrant throughout, framed by a taut structure of mouthwatering acidity and silky tannins which elongate the spice laden finish. We typically associate Pinot Noir this spine-tingling with the wines that would cost double from Burgundy, California, or Oregon. 

Grown just 25 minutes’ drive east of downtown Adelaide, its dry, windy climate is especially suited to organic and biodynamic agriculture, which is exactly why Heirloom proprietor Zar Brooks decided to stake his vinous fortunes there. 

Zar is a larger than life personality with a mop of unkempt hair and an easy smile whose famous wit is as sharp as his palate—as a prominent judge in Australian wine competitions, he knows a thing or two about what makes a killer wine. He’s absolutely obsessed with terroir integrity, which is why he insists on using only heirloom clones in his wines (hence the name). 

Zar’s Velvet Fog Pinot comes from Heirloom’s best north-facing Adelaide Hills vineyard whose free-draining, quartz-laden soils create a unique microclimate that yields wines of incredible character and nuance. The 2018 was hand-picked and sorted, naturally fermented (50% whole-cluster) basket-pressed, and stored in primarily new French oak barriques from bespoke coopers. That kind of serious TLC doesn’t usually result in a bargain wine—especially not when it comes to Pinot Noir.