Marlborough

Black cherry and spicy oak are prominent on the nose with dark berry and vanilla notes providing complexity. The palate is soft and round with silky tannins and gentle acidity. As on the nose, cherry and berry fruits are matched with vanilla and spice along with hints of coffee and smoke flavours from the maturation in French oak.

Any rabbit or duck dish.

Marcus Wright / Rebecca Wiffen.

Our winemaking uses the traditional Burgundian techniques of small batch fermentation, hand-plunging and maturation in 225 Lt French oak barriques(25% new). After nine months in barrel the wine was gently filfered before being estate bottled.

The grapes were sourced predominantly from the north facing hillside Potez vineyard overlooking the Brancott Valley. The clone 115 and clone 5 Pinot Noir vines are grown in clay based soils producing dark fruit and a muscular structure. 10% of the blend came from our own vineyard in the Waihopai Valley and the adjacent Barnsley vineyard. These vineyards are planted with a mix of new clone Pinot Noir and provide lifted cherry fruit, bringing elegance to the palate.

Three to five years. In the young wine the fruit character dominates, however as the wine develops these flavours and aromas will gradually make way for more savoury characters including porcini mushroom, forest floor and truffle.

Alcohol: 13.5 % pH: 3.55 Residual Sugar: 2.0g/L Total Acidity: 5.6g/L Brix: 23.9