Small Wonder Pinot Noir Auburn 2024

Auburn sits at the top of Small Wonder's range — the estate's premium, single-varietal tier, made from fruit grown on the clay-rich upper slopes of their certified-organic Tamar Valley vineyard, a distinctly different character to the softer, sandier-soil fruit used for their entry-level Landscape series. As winemaker Andrew Trio puts it, "the soils at the top of the hill have greater clay content, which produces earth-driven wines with greater detail and structure" — and that's exactly the fruit reserved for Auburn. The vineyard itself, first planted in 1998 under its former name Goaty Hill and acquired by the Overstory group in 2020, has been painstakingly mapped block by block to understand its considerable natural variation, and the Pinot here is hand-harvested, fermented, and matured in small lots. It's earned genuinely serious international attention — Jancis Robinson's Richard Hemming MW included Small Wonder in a blind tasting alongside prestige Champagnes and Bordeaux, concluding the Tasmanian wines could stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

The result shows real complexity and structure: vivid cherry and blueberry meet white pepper, vanilla bean, dried herbs, and florals, all sitting over a dusty, stony core. The palate is elegant and fairly lightweight, with a lovely al dente crunch and fine, spice-flecked tannins — Wine Enthusiast called it "a classy drop" with real ageing potential, while Campbell Mattinson scored the 2023 a strong 92 points, praising its "sinewy tannin structure and good persistence" alongside notes of sweet-sour cherry, undergrowth, and roasted nuts.