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Kooyong 'Massale' Pinot Noir 2007 Boy, hasn't Aussie pinot Noir come a long way. This is a beautiful bistro pinot noir, full of length, dryness, minerality and style. It almost out-Burgundies Burgundy with its dry, savoury length, its twists of dried herbs leaps of acidity making it a perfect dinner table partner. A delight. Drink: 2008-2011. 91 points. Campbell Mattinson, The Winefront At Kooyong we have experimented with many aspects of winemaking and grape growing in order to continually improve and refine our wines. One area which has seen dramatic change over the past five vintages has been the yeast strains we use for fermentation. In the 2000 vintage we decided to trial over 15 different strains. The trial was continued in 2001 using only the better performing strains of the previous year. However, one result which showed the most dramatic improvement in the wine in 2000 was more extensively used. When this result was confirmed in 2001 we decided that all the future vintages would be made this way. And the yeast. Well actually, no yeast, or, at least, not inoculating for yeast. Some people call it 'wild' yeast. I prefer not to for we don't really know where the yeast comes from. I call them 'natural ferments'. Such ferments are not common place in Australia. They are considered risky by many winemakers while others find the characters of these wines not necessarily desirable. Problems such as stuck ferments, increased volatile acidities and general off odours are often linked to natural ferments. In our case, none of these problems have been an issue. This might be explained by the difference in the yeast strains and the methods used during fermentation within each winery being different. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect results to vary greatly between wineries. The wines we have made this way do not necessarily show a heightened funky character. I consider these wines to be better, not for any single character in particular, but for their more subtle effects upon the expression of the wine. The wines are more seemless, the nose is more minerally and savoury and the palate is finer but longer. One could describe the wines as less obvious in any one character but more balanced. Sandro Mosele