Market Recognition
Recognition has been regular since 2000, when the top three wines were included in the “Langton’s Classification of Australian Wines: the Reserve, Premium and Estate pinot noirs, with the Reserve placed next to Penfolds Grange, at the top of the table. This is the only official classification of Australian wines, now revised every four years. Since 2000, the Reserve and Premium wines have remained in the top two categories of that listing, putting them within the top thirty or so Australian wines of all types.
Every year, wine reviews from the leading critics in Australia and overseas have placed Bass Phillip at the highest levels.
2010: in Singapore, at the “DRC verses the World” Tasting event, conducted by the notable USA critic Allan Meadows (“Burghound”), 2003 Bass Phillip Reserve pinot noir was rated the highest “in the world” against competition from the best producers in France (DRC), USA, New Zealand & Austria.
2012: in Australia, the Reserve pinot noir 2010 became the first wine ever to be awarded 99 points by Australia’s leading critic, James Halliday, and it was awarded Australian “Wine of the Year”. Subsequently, the 2012 vintage became the second Australian wine to score 99 points.
2014: Leading Australian critic Huon Hook named Bass Phillip’s 2013 Reserve pinot noir in Australia’s top three wines.
2014: Phillip Jones was nominated as a finalist (top ten) for the award of “Australian Winemaker of the Year” (Gourmet Traveller magazine). This also occurred in 2008. Phillip was also nominated as a “Legend of Melbourne Food and Wine” in 2008. This award is occasionally presented during the annual Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.
2015: The book “Australian Wine Vintages” by Robert Geddes named the 2013 Reserve pinot noir as its highest rated Australian Wine (all types).
2016: The 2014 Reserve pinot noir was rated “equal top Australian wine (all types)” alongside two other wines, by Jeremy Oliver, also one of Australia’s leading critics.
In the same year, James Halliday awarded “Australian pinot noir of the year” to the Bass Phillip 2014 Premium pinot noir (98 points).
2018: The seventh edition of Langton’s classification – unveiled on 1 September 2018.
Bass Phillip Reserve Pinot Noir was one of the 22 wines awarded “ Exceptional” ( i.e. The most highly prized of all Australian fine wines. Representing generations of effort and character of place.)
Bass Phillip Premium Pinot Noir was one of the 46 wines awarded “ Outstanding”. Representing The best of Australian winemaking practices, vineyard provenance and regional voice.
2019: Bass Phillip Reserve 2017 was awarded 99 points by James Halliday and featured as the top 100 wines of Australia for the year.
Notable Quotations from the World’s Leading Reviewers
ROBERT M. PARKER JR, THE WINE ADVOCATE
“Make no mistake about it, this is brilliant Pinot Noir, undoubtedly one of the finest being produced in Australia. Cote de Nuits-like characteristics are evident in the gorgeously sweet, plum, berry, and cherry fruit flavours infused with cinnamon and allspice. …. full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, with superb purity, creamy, big, thick, Burgundian-like texture (that has not been foolishly acidified), and a long, concentrated finish. Extremely complex, and more forward and evolved than most Burgundies are at a similar age, this is beautifully made wine. …. a brilliant effort.”
MAX ALLEN, THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE, JUNE 27-28, 2009
“Imagine you were asked to select a Dream Team of Australian wines - a case of modern classics to show some international wine-lovers the best that this country can produce. Which wines would you choose? I’d rather field a collection of single-region, single-vineyard wines that taste more of where they’re from than how they’ve been made. The only pinot noir in the list is Bass Phillip Premium.”
JAMES HALLIDAY, 2013
“It is (the Bass Phillip Reserve 2010) the greatest Australasian pinot ever made, here is a wine of astonishing purity and elegant harmony….Over the years, Phillip Jones has toyed with true greatness. He has achieved it to an awesome degree.”
ANDREW CAILLARD, MW. LANGTON’S WINE ACTION HOUSE (2015)
“Bass Phillip wines are very complex, delicious wines with mounting degrees of power and profundity.” “It is a madly rare, profoundly intense and exquisitely balanced wine which reflects the nuances of an exceptional vineyard site.”
LISA PEROTTI-BROWN MW, THE WINE ADVOCATE (2015)
“When Bass Phillip hits the highs, it truly pushes the boundaries of Australian Pinot Noir greatness.”
ROBERT GEDDES MW, WINES THAT MAKE ME THIRSTY (2016)
“Putting it simply, Bass Phillip has made some of the best pinot noir I’ve drunk in my whole life, from anywhere of any age.”