And a perfect Father’s Day gift
Handpicked Wines: Where the Vines Are Fit, the Compost Tea Is Brewing, and the Pinot Has Clearly Been to Finishing School
Handpicked Wines is a highly organised, beautifully hydrated, soil-conscious, Pinot-whispering operation in which even the worms probably have professional development plans.
Handpicked has built its reputation on a far more elegant obsession than wineries who are content to fling grapes at barrels and hope for applause. Handpicked Wines finds special vineyards and coaxes the best from them, letting each site speak in its own accent. Sometimes that accent is Upper Yarra perfume. Sometimes it is Mornington Peninsula silk. Sometimes it is Tasmania with a cool-climate glint in its eye.
Premium Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Handpicked
The new Premium Pinot Noir and Chardonnay release is centred on the 2024 vintage, and it shows Handpicked doing what it clearly loves most: taking its two hero varieties, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and sending them out into the world like exceptionally well-dressed children. Chief Winemaker Peter Dillon calls Pinot Noir and Chardonnay the bread and butter of Handpicked.
A tale of Two Yarra Valley Chardonnays
The two Yarra Valley Chardonnays are the great comparative treat here. They come from vineyards less than an hour apart, yet they behave like siblings who went to different schools and never quite recovered from it.
Wombat Creek Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2024
The Wombat Creek Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2024 comes from the Upper Yarra, high up at around 424 metres, where the air is cool, the slopes are steep, and the local wildlife sounds as though it has been assembled by a tourism board with a generous budget – think lyrebirds, wallabies, kangaroos, platypus and, naturally, wombats. The vineyard’s volcanic loams and elevation give the wine its fine-boned cool-climate confidence. Hand-picked fruit is whole-bunch pressed, wild fermented in French oak, put through partial malolactic fermentation and matured for ten months. The result is described as powerful, with a tight acid line. In the glass, this is the Chardonnay you imagine wearing a lovely designer linen.
Highbow Hill Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2024
The Highbow Hill Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2024, by contrast, represents the Yarra Valley floor. Here the mood shifts from alpine finesse to depth and savoury polish. The fruit is hand-picked, chilled overnight, whole-bunch pressed into barrique and puncheon, then given indigenous fermentation, partial malolactic fermentation and ten months in French oak. The wine is described as having a quartz-like texture, elegance and depth. Quartz-like is a marvellous descriptor because it sounds geological, expensive and slightly dangerous if dropped. This Chardonnay feels more grounded than Wombat Creek, with savoury density and a subtle spice. If Wombat Creek is morning light over a fern gully, Highbow Hill is golden hour over a long lunch.
Single Vineyard Capella Pinot Noir 2024
Then comes the Single Vineyard Capella Pinot Noir 2024, the flagship, the head prefect, the Pinot with its name on the honour board. Capella, Handpicked’s Mornington Peninsula home vineyard, is named after one of the brightest stars in the night sky. This 2024 vintage is particularly significant as the second vintage of this wine to be officially certified organic, a milestone that reflects years of stewardship and patient viticultural labour. This is the Pinot one expects to glide rather than walk. It carries the romance of Mornington Peninsula Pinot, supple, aromatic, layered and quietly persuasive. It is the person at the dinner party everyone wants to sit next to.
The Handpicked Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2024
The fourth wine, the Handpicked Collection Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2024, offers a more accessible but still serious expression of the region. It carries the Certified Organic tick too. At $63, it sits below the single vineyard releases in price, but not in personality. This is the wine to pour when you want a Pinot with enough fragrance and finesse to feel special, but not so precious that one must dim the lights and address it formally.
Biodiversity in the wineries
What makes these wines especially engaging is the vineyard work behind them. The team uses compost, mulching, inter-row cropping, integrated pest management, water harvesting, mechanical weed control and insectariums to encourage biodiversity and reduce reliance on synthetic chemicals. And then there are the compost teas, which sound like something served at a wellness retreat for emotionally exhausted vines. In reality, they are part of a serious program to improve biodiversity and vine health. Handpicked even makes its own compost teas, which suggests a level of vineyard commitment that borders on endearing eccentricity.
The people matter too. The notes make clear that Handpicked’s winemaking and viticulture team work relentlessly through the season to produce fruit that expresses regionality. Even the urban cellar doors are part of the mission, with crushed glass recycling, reused Prosecco bottles, reused cardboard packaging, biodegradable food packaging and greener gifting. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Handpicked is trialling sustainable label stocks, recycled cartons, biodegradable inks, FSC recycled paper gift packaging and lighter-weight bottles. Wine should be pleasurable, yes, but it is even better when pleasure arrives without leaving a trail of ecological confetti behind it.
Handpicked’s 2024 Premium Pinot Noir and Chardonnay release is a tour through place and personality. The wines show the differences between vineyard sites with admirable clarity: Wombat Creek’s lifted cool-climate finesse, Highbow Hill’s savoury depth, Capella’s flagship grace, and Mornington Peninsula Pinot’s fragrant generosity.
There is joy here. Serious vineyard work sits beneath the charm. The compost is brewing, the vines are singing, the staff are clearly all in, and the wines have emerged looking extremely pleased with themselves.
More information at Handpicked Wines
