Nose
On the nose, it has intense grapefruit, granny smith apple, figs and lemon sherbet aromas with some tobacco and rock melon notes.
Palate
The palate has grapefruit, rock melon and fig flavours with some leesy characters, a cool, taut structure and fresh, crisp acidity. Its pristine concentrated fruit and creamy texture (enhanced by the lees stirring) support the wine’s lingering, dry finish.
Growing Conditions
The quality of the season was excellent, with mild conditions and just the occasional odd hot burst along the way, over the Christmas break and on the first weekend in March. While limited rain fell through spring and summer, the vines did not suffer from lack of moisture and ripened without difficulty. As a comparison, 2001 shared many features in common with the 1991 vintage. This year, the whites were of a higher quality because crop levels were lower and showed greater fruit freshness and concentration. With careful use of bird nets, damage was minimal and the fruit was in good condition when it was picked.
Bottling
14/7/2001
Winemaking
The usual Moss Wood techniques were applied in the winery. The grapes were de-stemmed, pumped through the must chiller and loaded into the press. Free-run juice was drained and all pressings were blended back into the main batch. The juice was cold settled for 48 hours and the clear juice racked off to a fermentation tank and seeded with a pure yeast culture. A small amount of solids (2%) was also included. Temperature of fermentation was controlled at 18 C and the tanks were stirred once a day to keep the yeast in suspension. Once fermentation was completed, the stirring continued once per week for six weeks after which the wine was protein stabilised and cold stabilised and then bottled on 15th July.
Aging
cellaring for up to 15 years.
