Grown in our final year of conversion to organics (BioGro #5124) on our Estate in. 7 years old vines.
A dream season… perfect cool climate growing conditions. Bud-burst was earlier than usual, flowering less prolific, and harvest later than usual. A long late summer provided us with an opportunity to get both skin and seed tannins really ripe with great cool climate Pinot Noir flavours. We harvested 4 tonnes. We avoided the temptation to push our young vines, and dropped bunches from slower vines on harder, thinner soils. In the older blocks, we still did not take a full crop.

Hand harvesting began on 26 April, and ended on 28 April. The harvest was unusually compact, time-wise… a reflection of the way the vines caught up in the late Indian Summer conditions. 100% destemmed without crushing into open-top fermenters.

Fermentation began naturally, helped along only by gentle hand plunging. We basket pressed after about 23 to 39 days of total maceration on the skins. Maturation took place in a selection of quality tight-grained French oak barriques (mainly Allier and Tronçaise), about 30% new, for 11 months.

Bottled unfined and unfiltered. Contains low levels of sulphites. Bottled under screw cap in lightweight glass.
Needed time to reveal its full potential. Vibrant juicy red fruit (redcurrant and cherry), and black (plum and black cherry) with finely balanced acidity and subtle oak. Mineral. Silky but powerful tannins. This wine is expected to take on a complex savoury character with fl oral high tones as is typical for the Estate’s wines. Tannin-tartrate crystal sediment is expected to develop in the bottle allowing the wine to soften naturally.