Phillip Jones founded Bass Phillip in South Gippsland in 1979, inspired by the wines of Henri Jayer. He spent four decades making some of Australia's most Burgundian pinot noir and chardonnay on a northeast-facing block of volcanic soil at Leongatha. In 2020, he sold to Jean-Marie Fourrier of Domaine Fourrier in Gevrey-Chambertin, who trained under Jayer himself and worked his legendary 1988 harvest.
The Reserve, arguably Australia’s most celebrated pinot noir, comes from five rows of MV6 vines within the original 1979 Estate Vineyard — colonial clone material brought to Australia by James Busby in 1832, known for small berries and concentrated flavor. The vines are own-rooted and biodynamically farmed, yielding just 270 grams of fruit per vine; a single plant barely fills half a bottle. In the cellar, indigenous yeasts, open fermenters, no pumps. The wine spends twenty months in new French Allier oak, then bottled unfined and unfiltered.
2019 is Phillip Jones's last vintage. In the glass, red currant, strawberry leaf, and dried hibiscus on the nose, with oyster mushroom, dried thyme, and forest floor beneath. Silky and precise on the palate, with luminous acidity and chalky tannin throughout. A 98 from Wine Enthusiast and 97 from Vinous, who called it “a monumental example of the variety, from anywhere.”
