Nose
The wine has a medium to deep ruby hue and is in bright condition. On the nose, there are lifted fragrances of strawberry and strawberry jam; musky notes like quince jelly; cherry, plum, cinnamon, dried spice and sap; very soft oak notes in the background.
Palate
On the palate, bright strawberry and cherry fl avours fi ll the mouth and sit over a balanced structure of lifted acidity and fi rm tannin. The mouthfeel is medium to full-bodied and the wine has intensity without heaviness. The tannins are supple and provide a good base for the fl avours and body of the wine without impinging on the texture, avoiding drying or grittiness.
Growing Conditions
It’s hard to remember a better growing season for Pinot Noir than 2013/14. We had above average rainfall through the year but during the fl owering period of 4 weeks that commenced at the end of October, 2013, there was no rain to speak of and temperatures remained moderate. The vines then enjoyed some 70mm of top up rain through to the end of December. It’s one of the quirks of viticulture that we can have had such good conditions and still end up with yield of 4.43 tonnes/hectare, down some 30%. In fact this was not really a surprise because the vineyard was still recovering from the hail damage infl icted in November 2012. If we’re being honest, we’re happier with low yields in Pinot Noir because experience tells us quality can suffer with bigger crops. Perhaps the fi nal point to make about the quality of the season can be seen in the climate data above. The Pinot Noir basked in a succession of beautiful sunny days, accumulating 950 hours of ripening time between 18 – 28oC, when 700 is adequate. Similarly, it experienced only 23 hours above 33oC, so there was defi nitely no heat stress, although we wouldn’t like to see too much less than this. Vines actually benefi t from higher temperatures and we think 30 – 40 hours is reliable for full fl avour ripeness. Ripeness was slightly above average at 13.8 Baume and the harvest date was 8 days earlier than average on the 14th February, 2014. There were no disease problems and the birds were kept at bay by the nets so we had clean, handpicked fruit delivered to the winey to give us a fl ying start in the winemaking process.Growing Season Ave Temperature – 20.44oC Number of hours accrued between 18 and 28oC – 950 Number of hours above 33oC – 23 Days Elapsed Between Flowering and Harvest 101 days .
Bottling
4/10/2015
Winemaking
There were 5 individual batches of Pinot Noir and all were destemmed into small, open fermenters and then hand plunged, 3 times per day, for extraction of colour and fl avour. Fermentations proceeded at warmer temperatures around 28-30oC and were carried out by selected yeast strains. After fermentation each batch was pressed and underwent malolactic fermentation in stainless steel. Upon completion it was then racked into 228 litre French oak barrels, 15% of which were new, where it stayed for 18 months. In September 2015 all barrels were racked and blended in stainless steel and the wine was assessed for balance. It was decided fi ning was not required. It was then sterile fi ltered and bottled on 14th October, 2015.
Aging
Cellaring recommendation is for a decade, although full maturity will take at least 20 years.
