Village Pinot Noir

The Village line is Gentle Folk's entry tier of single-variety bottlings - the best barrels from each cuvee are kept aside for the single-vineyard releases (Scary Gully, Little Creek, Monomeith, Piccadilly, Ashton); the remaining barrels assemble into Village by variety (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Shiraz). The producer's multi-variety field-blend statement wine is Rainbow Juice, a separate cuvee.

The 2021 draws from four Adelaide Hills sites at 500-620m: Monomeith 30%, Little Creek 30%, Piccadilly 20%, Scary Gully 20% (per Sometimes Always - the producer doesn't publish per-vintage blends). Roughly 20% whole-cluster open-top fermentation for three weeks alongside a fraction of 100%-whole-bunch shorter macerations, native yeast, eight months in French oak barriques and puncheons (about 10% new for this release), no fining, no filtration, a splash of SO2 at bottling. 13.5%.

2021 was the recovery vintage for Adelaide Hills - the year after the Cudlee Creek bushfire took roughly thirty percent of the region's production and many Pinot producers skipped 2020 entirely. Long cool ripening, only one day above 40C all summer, an Indian-summer finish; large crop and fine-tannin Pinots.