Pinot noir 2005

A succulent and complex Pinot Noir showing smouldering savoury and gamey character. Layers of rich dark plum and cherry, heady spice and perfumed f loral notes abound. The finely concentrated palate shows suppleness and complexity followed with a lengthy smooth finish, traditional of Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir. This is a classic wine that shows the elegance, harmony and sophistication required for longevity. Enjoy 2008 through to 2025.

Vineyard
Our Pinot Noir blocks are hand harvested from vines ageing up to 25 years – some of New Zealand’s oldest Pinot Noir vines. A range of 10 clones including Abel, 10/5 and some of the new Dijon clones are planted and give complexity to the final blend.

The vineyards are situated on the Martinbrough Terrace which is famed for its deep, free draining, ancient river bed soils which are ideal for making ultra premium Pinot Noir wines.

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 period through autumn. All of this results in a natural low-vigour site regulating crops and enabling high quality, consistent, ripe fruit.

Winemaking
All fruit is carefully sorted in the vineyard at harvest and again in the winery before being processed. About 10% of the grapes are whole bunch fermented and the rest fully destemmed.

The wine underwent a cool pre-ferment maceration for 5-8 days and spent an average time on skins of about 20 days before all being pressed to French oak barrels. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in barrel and remained on its lees for 10 months before racking, blending and bottling on site.

Indigenous yeasts are used which add to the wine’s complexity in addition to traditional methods of punching down the ferments by hand. Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir is held back for 12 months after bottling to allow further integration.