MAgnums

Every year we bottle approximately 100 magnums of the current Pinot Noir.

These are then carefully and gently stored in our cellar only to be released when the layers have intergrated, the nose is heady and they are becoming their most rewarding.

These precious gems are enjoyable now but are also able to be cellared for another few years for further rewards.

Our current releases are:

1999 Pinot Noir Magnum

Viticulture
Made from clean ripe Martinborough terrace fruit drawn primarily from our Estate vineyards and the neighboring McCreanor Vineyard. Grown during a long season which is undoubtedly perfect conditions for pinot noir.

A warm dry climate (700ml rain per annum) with particularly long autumns allowing full fruit development and ripening. Temperatures often top 30ºC during the day but fall to 10ºC-15ºC at night. Soils are free draining stony silt loam soils of moderate or shallow depth. Ground water is found beyond the reach of all vines allowing crop levels to be maintained at very low levels.

Winemaking
Vinted in small lots using traditional French methods and barrel ageing. At bottling this wine exhibited strong primary berry fruit flavours, obvious oak and a spicy complexity. With bottle aging, this wine now shows secondary characters of earthy complexity to complement the darker fruits and layers of spice. The tannins have developed well and provide great texture and length. Quite Burgundian in style, the wine displays concentration, complexity and structure

Cellaring
The wine is drinking wonderfully right now, and we envisage it will age well for minimum of 3-5 years. We have found our Pinot Noir to cellar well for many years beyond this, and would recommend longer for those buying to cellar for further complexity.