pinot noir 2009
A very warm summer (think Melbourne bush fires) – has produced a rich supple Pinot Noir full of red and dark fruits with hedonistic savoury and spice characters. Hand-picked from our oldest blocks of Pinot on the Martinborough Terrace the age of these vines is now beginning to show a real sense of place or ‘terroir’. This is most evident on the palate where the older vines produce a wine showing greater complexity and depth that will see this wine age gracefully for at least ten years. As we enter our 30 years of growing great Pinot this is something we are getting very excited about. |
VINEYARD
Our Pinot Noir blocks are harvested by hand from vines ageing up to 28 years old, some of New Zealand’s oldest Pinot Noir vines. A range of ten clones including Abel, 10/5 and a variety of the new Dijon clones are planted giving us complexity and a range of blending options.
All the vineyards are situated on the Martinborough Terrace which is famed for its deep, free-draining, alluvial soils which are ideal for making ultra premium Pinot Noir.
The region has a cool, maritime climate along with other beneficial climatic drivers including a rain shadow, one of the country’s largest diurnal temperature differentials, windy springs and a long warm ripening period through autumn. All this results in a natural low-vigour site regulating crops and enabling high quality, consistent, ripe fruit.
VINIFICATION
The fruit is carefully sorted in the vineyard at harvest and again in the winery before being transferred to small open top fermenting vats. The wine undergoes a cool pre-ferment maceration for 4- 7 days at 15°C before fermentation using indigenous yeasts begins. The wine is carefully hand plunged up to three times a day and spends an average of 21 days on skins before being pressed. The wine is then aged for 12 months in French oak barriques before racking. We use traditional techniques to gently bring out the maximum potential of the grapes and impart complexity and finesse on the finished wine. Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir is neither fined nor filtered and is aged in bottle before release to aid integration and complexity.
THE SEASON
We entered the 2009 growing season with good soil moisture and warm, settled spring conditions ensuing an excellent flowering. This was ideal for even fruit formation and above average crop levels, meaning we had to carry out extensive fruit thinning and shoulder removal in January to reduce crop levels. February was warm with the occasional heat spike (remember the Melbourne wild fires) with picking starting on the 29th March. We had three vineyard passes over two weeks to pick these grapes and were pleased to avoid any botrytis.
Appellation |
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Martinborough Terrace |
Oak Maturation |
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33% New Oak, 25% 1 year Oak, 45% 2 year+ Oak |
Vineyard Blocks |
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Wharekauhau, MV Home Block, Duncan’s Paddock and Moy Hall |
Clones |
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Abel, UCD 5, 10/5, 667, 777 and Clone 114 |
Harvest Dates |
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27th March to 11th April 2009 |
Harvest Analysis |
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23.8 – 25.6 Brix
3.46– 3.55pH
5.50 – 7.70g/L TA |
Bottling Date |
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30th September 2010 |
Wine Analysis |
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3.72 pH 6.05 g/L TA 14.0 % alc |
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