Bass Phillip Wines

The story

The Cabernet That Came Out

Phillip Jones had already spent several years farming Gippsland when he travelled to Vosne-Romanee in the early 1980s to watch Henri Jayer work. Jayer was then among the most discussed vignerons in Burgundy: low yields, minimal intervention, and a belief that Pinot Noir should carry the character of its vineyard rather than its cellar. Jones came back to Gippsland and pulled out his Cabernet Sauvignon. It was not a gradual shift or a commercial hedge. He replanted the estate entirely to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, gave up whatever Cabernet he had in the ground, and committed to the two grapes he had seen Jayer work with in Burgundy. The vines planted in the mid-1980s after that decision are still producing the fruit that goes into every Bass Phillip bottle today.

From the atlas

Bass Phillip Wines

At A Glance

Producer: Bass Phillip Wines Region: Gippsland, Victoria, Australia Grapes: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay Range: Estate, Premium, Reserve Farming: Biodynamic (certified 2002), no irrigation Production: Approximately 1,500 cases annually Owner: Jean-Marie Fourrier (since 2020)

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The Producer

Bass Phillip is a small biodynamic estate in Gippsland, the long coastal region in eastern Victoria that curves toward the Bass Strait. Phillip Jones founded it in 1979 and spent the next twelve years farming before he released a single commercial bottle. His first vintage hit the market in 1991. By then the vineyards were planted to only two grapes, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and farmed without irrigation on a conviction that the site would speak clearly if the yields were kept low and the intervention in the cellar was kept to almost nothing.

The estate now covers roughly 14 hectares. It produces around 1,500 cases per year across three tiers. In 2020 Jean-Marie Fourrier, who runs Domaine Fourrier in Gevrey-Chambolle and had been connected to Bass Phillip for close to two decades, became the owner. He kept the farming and the cellar philosophy intact.

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Place

Gippsland sits in the south-eastern corner of Victoria, where the land drops toward Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean pushes a cool, moist maritime influence far inland. The region shares a latitude and a climate character with parts of Burgundy and northern Italy rather than with the warmer and better-known wine country of the Barossa or Hunter Valley. Summer temperatures stay moderate, ripening is slow, and the growing season stretches long enough for Pinot Noir to hold acidity while developing flavour. That combination of cool air and maritime humidity is exactly what Pinot Noir needs to produce wines with lift and definition rather than soft, ripe, broadly fruited bottles.

When Jones chose Gippsland in the late 1970s, very little serious Pinot Noir existed anywhere in Australia. He was reading the climate map, not following a regional reputation.

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Soil And Site

The exact soil composition of the Bass Phillip vineyards has not been confirmed in available sources, so the description stays with what is established. The vineyards are planted densely, with low yields per vine. Dense planting forces root competition and reduces each plant's crop load, directing energy into fewer grapes rather than volume. The combination of low yield and dry farming produces small, concentrated berries with pronounced flavour per unit of fruit. No irrigation means the vines draw only on what the Gippsland water table and rainfall provide, tying the character of each vintage directly to the season.

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Story

Phillip Jones came to Gippsland as an outsider to the Australian wine establishment. He had studied the methods of Henri Jayer in Vosne-Romanee, one of the Burgundian winemakers whose influence on natural, low-intervention Pinot Noir shaped a generation of producers across Europe and, less visibly, in the southern hemisphere. Jones began with Cabernet Sauvignon. In the mid-1980s he recognised that the Gippsland climate aligned far more closely with Burgundy than with Bordeaux and replanted entirely to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. That decision removed Cabernet Sauvignon from the estate permanently and set the direction of every vintage since.

Organic certification followed in 1993, biodynamic certification in 2002. Both moved Jones further from conventional viticultural inputs and deeper into farming that read the site and the season rather than correcting for them.

The handover to Fourrier in 2020 closed a loop. Fourrier had trained under Henri Jayer in Vosne-Romanee, the same figure whose methods Jones had studied forty years earlier. The Burgundian thread ran from Jayer to Jones across the southern hemisphere and then, with the ownership change, returned to a Burgundy-trained vigneron.

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Vineyards And Cellar

The 14 hectares are farmed biodynamically with no irrigation. Dense planting keeps individual vine yields low, and the picking decisions aim for full physiological ripeness without the sugar accumulation that comes with warm-climate harvests. Dry farming means each vintage reflects the actual season: cool years produce lighter, more aromatic wines; warmer years bring richer mid-palates while retaining the acidity that Gippsland delivers reliably.

In the cellar, the approach is minimal. The wines are unfined and unfiltered, passing from barrel to bottle without the treatments that strip character or soften texture. The 2021 Estate Pinot Noir aged 14 months in French oak with 22% new barrels, a proportion high enough to add some spice and frame without overwhelming the fruit character. No fining, no filtration. The wine arrives in the glass exactly as it left the barrel.

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Wines

Bass Phillip makes Pinot Noir and Chardonnay across three tiers: Estate, Premium, and Reserve.

Estate draws from the broader estate holdings. It spends around 14 months in French oak, with new oak kept at roughly 22%. It is a wine with immediate clarity: red cherry, rose petal, and a savoury bite of charred radicchio on the nose, then fine-grained tannin and fresh acidity through the palate. It is the most accessible tier and the one produced in the greatest volume across the roughly 1,500 annual cases.

Premium is drawn from selected parcels with tighter yields and longer ageing. The fruit concentration is higher, the tannin is firmer, and the wine benefits from additional time in bottle before opening. Reserve sits at the top, produced only in years when specific parcels deliver fruit at the level the tier demands. Exact production splits between tiers are not confirmed in available sources, but all three tiers run through the same unfined, unfiltered cellar regime.

Chardonnay follows the same three-tier architecture as the Pinot Noir, though the sensory profile has not been confirmed in the same detail in available sources.

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In The Glass

The 2021 Estate Pinot Noir opens with red cherry and rose petal, then a savoury lift of charred radicchio and spice that sets it apart from the soft, fruit-forward register of warmer Australian Pinot Noir. In the mouth the tannin is fine and present, not coarse or drying, and the acidity runs clean through the mid-palate and into a finish that is long and slightly mineral. There is no obvious oak sweetness despite the 14 months in barrel, because the 22% new oak rate is modest and the fruit character is precise enough to absorb it.

Moving up the tiers, Premium adds depth and concentration without losing that cool-climate definition. The tannin takes longer to settle, the mid-palate becomes more layered, and the wine rewards decanting and several years of additional bottle ageing. Reserve, in the best years, pushes further into that range: the same fruit clarity but with greater presence through the mid-palate and a finish that holds longer.

Across all three tiers the signature is the same: Pinot Noir that carries its acidity cleanly, shows fruit without softening agents, and finishes with a dry, mineral edge that reflects both the cool Gippsland maritime climate and the biodynamic farming behind it.

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A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Estate Pinot Noir. It is the tier where Bass Phillip's character is most legible: 14 months in French oak at 22% new, no fining, no filtration, and a nose that opens with red cherry, rose petal, charred radicchio, and spice before the palate delivers fine tannin and a clean acid line through to a dry finish. It is the least expensive and most available tier, and it already shows what Jones built and Fourrier has continued: Pinot Noir with cool-climate acidity, savoury complexity, and a dry, precise finish that has nothing in common with the soft, oak-driven styles that dominated Australian Pinot Noir for decades. Open it two hours before you plan to pour.

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Anecdote

Phillip Jones had already spent several years farming Gippsland when he booked a visit to Vosne-Romanee in the early 1980s to watch Henri Jayer work. Jayer was then one of the most discussed vignerons in Burgundy, known for low yields, minimal intervention, and a belief that Pinot Noir should taste of the vineyard rather than the cellar. Jones came back to Gippsland and pulled out his Cabernet Sauvignon. It was not a gradual transition or a commercial calculation. He replanted the estate entirely to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, surrendered whatever Cabernet he had in the ground, and committed fully to the two grapes he had seen Jayer work with in Burgundy. The vines that came out of the ground in the mid-1980s were replaced with vines that are still producing the fruit that goes into every Bass Phillip bottle today.

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Final Word

Bass Phillip was making serious Australian Pinot Noir before there was a market for it, and it has continued on exactly the same terms since. The estate is small, the output is low, and the wines are difficult to find outside specialist merchants and the winery itself. Estate Pinot Noir is the place to begin: a dry, savoury, precise bottle that shows what cool-climate Gippsland produces when the farming is biodynamic and the cellar leaves the wine alone.

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Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_Phillip
• https://www.vineyardbrands.com/producer.aspx?id=158
• https://laywheelertrading.com/magazine/producer/bass-phillip/
• https://www.differentdrop.com/products/2021-bass-phillip-estate-pinot-noir