Nose
Pinot Noir has bright, fragrant cherry and plum aromas, spicy oak and good concentration of dark berry flavours, complexity, finesse and smoothness of texture and a long, satisfying finish with well-integrated tannins.
Growing Conditions
This was a great vintage for pinot noir at Moss Wood; the relatively small crop followed a consistently warm season in which vine development and fruit maturation progressed at an even pace. There were no problems with rain and so there were none of the diseases associated with wet conditions and, because of netting, there were no problems with birds. Keith believes that the Moss Wood team could not have handled vineyard management better. Crop thinning was carried out pre-veraison and leaf thinning took place to ensure a high level of fruit exposure as the grapes ripened. Sampling of the vineyard was spot on and all the pinot was harvested, fully ripe, between 12.8 to 13° beaume.
Bottling
4/11/2004
Winemaking
Wine making was routine with the grapes cold soaked in chilled tanks for 48 hours before seeding took place to start the fermentation. The vats were hand-plunged four times a day until after fermentation, when this was reduced to once a day. The juice was tasted regularly until the right tannin balance was achieved at which time the grapes were pressed, the wine transferred to barrel to undergo malolactic fermentation, then adjusted and racked back into barrels (one-third new French barriques). There it remained for 18 months before being bottled in November 2004.
