TASTING NOTE
A bright ruby hue in the glass, this Awatere Valley Pinot Noir displays aromatic layers of red fruit and spicy florals with hints of crushed herbs. The palate is smoothly textured with flavours of bright cherry, red berries and finely integrated French oak. Mid-weight on the palate, this wine is balanced with refined silky tannins that lead to a long and elegant finish.

WINEMAKING
Grapes for this wine are handpicked at optimal ripeness before being transported back to the winery for processing. Once at the winery the fruit is gently destemmed and then lightly crushed using state of the art processing equipment. Batch fermented according to block and clone in small open top fermenters, the must undergoes a cold soak lasting around 7 days before being warmed and inoculated either with selected yeasts or left to undergo a ‘wild’ ferment using indigenous yeasts found naturally on the grapes. Once fermentation is complete the wine undergoes a short period of post-fermentation maturation on skins before being pressed directly to a combination old and new French barriques. These barrels are kept cool in a temperature-controlled cellar over the winter months, before being warmed in spring, allowing the wine to undergo a secondary malolactic fermentation. Barrels are carefully monitored over this period and once the malolactic fermentation is determined to be 100% complete the final blend is carefully put together before being filtered and bottled in late March.

VITICULTURE
The grapes for this wine were sourced from both our Whenua Awa vineyard and the vines that surround our Awatere Valley winery. The 2017/2018 growing season in the Awatere began with near perfect flowering conditions in December. January brought some of the warmest average temperatures on record, followed by a very wet February – providing challenges for the vineyard team. Vigilance in the vineyard including rigorous canopy management and fruit thinning was carried out – ensuring ripe clean fruit for harvest. The early warm temperatures brought harvest forward around two weeks earlier than average with the first of the Pinot Noir arriving at the winery on the 31st March.