Bannockburn De La Terre Pinot Noir 2013

De La Terre is a beautiful, sloping vineyard that was planted in 2007 to 10,000 vines per hectare. This planting density is still rare in an Australian setting, and results in a natural yield of around 500 grams per vine or less (i.e., Burgundy Grand Cru levels). De La Terre lies right beside the Serré vineyard (although it sits on the slope whereas Serré is on a small plateau directly above). Despite this proximity, the wines are very different, with De La Terre gifting an inkier, wilder and spicier expression of Pinot than Serré. Along with the slope, factors in these differences include the clonal selection (777 and 114), and the north-south row orientation (rather than the east-west of Serré).