Bass Phillip is an Australian wine

Australian wine

The Australian Wine Industry is the fourth largest exporter of wine around the world, with 760 million litres a year to a large international export market and contributes $5.5 billion per annum to the nation's economy...

ry based in Leongatha

Leongatha, Victoria

Leongatha is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, South Gippsland Shire, Victoria, Australia, located south-east of Melbourne. The town is the commercial, religious, educational and civic centre of the region. At the 2006 census, Leongatha had a population of 4,504.The Murray...

, within the Gippsland region

Gippsland

Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...

 of Victoria.

History

Bass Phillip was established in 1979 by Phillip Jones, although it did not sell its first bottle of wine until 12 years later. The winery was named after the explorers George Bass

George Bass

George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.-Early years:He was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George Bass, and a local beauty named Sarah Nee Newman. His father died in 1777 when Bass was 6...

 and Arthur Phillip

Arthur Phillip

Admiral Arthur Phillip RN was a British admiral and colonial administrator. Phillip was appointed Governor of New South Wales, the first European colony on the Australian continent, and was the founder of the settlement which is now the city of Sydney.-Early life and naval career:Arthur Phillip...

.

Initially Phillip Jones planted just under 3 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...

, with the intention of making a wine in the style of his favourite Bordeaux producer, Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou.

In the mid 1980s, after developing an interest in the Burgundy wine

Burgundy wine

Burgundy wine is wine made in the Burgundy region in eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône River, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here - those commonly referred to as "Burgundies" - are red wines made from Pinot Noir grapes or white wines made from...

s of Henri Jayer

Henri Jayer

Henri Jayer was a French vintner who is credited with introducing important innovations to Burgundian winemaking. He was particularly known for the quality of his Pinot Noir. Jayer was born in Vosne-Romanée. He attended the University of Dijon in the 1940s and earned a degree in oenology...

, Jones replanted the vineyard with Pinot noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot noir is a black wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes...

 and Chardonnay

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It is originated from the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand...

.

In 2001, Domaine Phillip Jones was formed in partnership with Peter Staindl to make Pinot noir from Mornington Peninsula

Mornington Peninsula

The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south-east of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geographically, the peninsula begins its protrusion...

 and Leongatha vineyards that are not owned by the estate.

Bass Phillip has been using Biodynamic wine

Biodynamic wine

Biodynamic wines are wines made using the principles of biodynamic agriculture. Biodynamic refers to both the agricultural methods and the handling and processing of the fruit post-harvest.-Biodynamic viticulture:...

 practices in its vineyards since 2006 after visiting Burgundy and seeing the difference that he believed that biodynamics had made to the wines of the producers he tasted. Bass Phillip does not have organic or biodynamic certification and is no longer allowed to include these terms on their labels.

Bass Phillip has been described by Jeni Port as "Australia's foremost maker of pinot noir" and by Robert Parker

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Robert M. Parker, Jr. is a leading U.S. wine critic with an international influence. His wine ratings on a 100-point scale and his newsletter The Wine Advocate, with his particular stylistic preferences and notetaking vocabulary, have become very influential in American wine buying and are...

 as making "brilliant Pinot Noirs, undoubtedly the finest being produced in Australia".

Wines and vineyards

About 1500 cases of wine are produced each vintage.

The most well regarded wine produced by Bass Phillip is the Reserve Pinot Noir. Langton's Classification of Australian Wine placed this wine at their highest level of "Exceptional" in 2005 and 2010, with the Premium Pinot Noir placed at the second highest level of "Outstanding" in 2000, 2005 and 2010.

Bass Phillip main vineyard in Leongatha is used to produce the Reserve, Premium and Estate level Pinot Noir wines from 3.5 hectares of vines. This estate vineyard has a vine density of 9000 per hectare, much denser than a typical premium Australian Pinot noir vineyard.

Three other vineyards are owned by Bass Phillip - Belrose and Issan which are both 3 hectares and Village which is 9.5 hectares. Each of these vineyards produce a single vineyard Pinot noir labelled with the same name as the vineyard.

In addition to Pinot noir based wines, Bass Phillip produces two Chardonnay based wines with Estate and Premium designations as well as a Gamay

Gamay

Gamay is a purple-colored grape variety used to make red wines, most notably grown in Beaujolais and in the Loire Valley around Tours. Its full name is Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. It is a very old cultivar, mentioned as long ago as the 15th century...

, a Rosé

Rosé

A rosé is a type of wine that has some of the color typical of a red wine, but only enough to turn it pink. The pink color can range from a pale orange to a vivid near-purple, depending on the grapes and wine making techniques.- Production techniques :There are three major ways to produce rosé...

 and limited quantities of Gewürztraminer

Gewürztraminer

Gewürztraminer is an aromatic wine grape variety that performs best in cooler climates. It is sometimes referred to colloquially as Gewürz, and in French it is written '...

.