Rainer Breit and partner Wendy Oliver have achieved a great deal in a remarkably short period of time. In 1996 they purchased their property at Curlewis with 1.6 hectares of what were then 11-year-old pinot noir vines; previously, and until 1998 the grapes had been sold to Scotchman's Hill. They set to and established an on-site winery, making 800 cases of very good Pinot Noir in their first vintage of 1998. Rainer Breit is a self-taught winemaker, but the full bag of pinot noir winemaking tricks was used in 1998: cold-soaking, hot-fermentation, post-ferment maceration, part inoculated and partly wild yeast use, prolonged lees contact, and bottling the wine neither fined nor filtered. While Breit and Oliver are self-confessed 'pinotphiles', they have planted a little chardonnay and buy a little locally-grown shiraz and chardonnay, but do not yet make these wines on a commercial scale. James Halliday

Winery note for 2004 Curlewis Syrah: Bottled 2nd May 2006. A bit riper than the 2003 but more oak treatment to balance it. Give it at least 12 months in bottle to produce its best.