A wine that speaks loudly of the vineyard in which it was grown. Perfumed violets and damson plums on the nose. Dark cherry and cacao on the palate, campfire coals. Succulent, juicy fruit provides lusciousness upfront and lingering acidity creates a long and svelte finish!
Viticulturist's Notes
Three North-West facing blocks on Greystone Vineyard. The blocks are sloping and steep in places with wind blown loess over clay and limestone deposits. Protected by altitude and aspect these blocks enjoy a long growing season. Density 2500 vines per hectare on VSP two cane trellis. A warm growing season gave us ripe fruit flavours but also intense terroir-driven characters such as dried herb and spice characters.
Winemaker's Notes
Our Pinot Noir (as with all our wines) comes from fruit solely from Greystone vineyard and was harvested at optimum ripeness with the grapes in healthy condition. Bunches were destemmed before small batch fermentation around 1.8 Tonne with 100 % native yeasts. Post fermentation maceration lasted for up to 3 weeks to allow ripe fruit tannins to soften, flavours to deepen and gain in complexity. Extensive blending trials have given us a true indication of the 2009 season from Greystone Vineyard, with 25% new French Oak.
Date of Harvest 26th March 2009 to 16th April 2009
Brix at Harvest 25.5
pH 3.50
Alcohol 14.5%
Raymond Chan - 18.5/20. Sam Kim 94/100. Deep dark ruby coloured with a nose of plum, dark cherry, and cacoa. The palate has an initial dusty savoriness, a midpalate of cherry and dark chocolate with a finish of white pepper spice and oak notes.
The tannins are still quite tight indicating that it will develop well in the bottle over the next few years.
Cellar to 2017
GOLD - Wine Style Asia Awards Singapore October 2011
SILVER - NZ International Wine Show 2010
94 points & 5 stars - Wine Orbit
Sam Kim, August 2010
Top 100 new releases - Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine
December/January 2011
4 stars - Raymond Chan Wine Review
March 2011
4 stars - Decanter Magazine July 2011
NZ’s top 2009 Pinot Noir’s