Astrolabe Waihopai Valley Comelybank Vineyard Pinot Noir 2019

TASTING NOTES

COLOUR/APPEARANCE Dark ruby red.

AROMA/BOUQUET Earthy and gamey, with dark and red cherry and notes of clove and old rose.

PALATE Rich, sweet, plush fruit, with concentrated, juicy plum and velvety tannins.

AGING POTENTIAL This wine should cellar well, for at least six years.

FOOD PAIRING Pan-seared duck breast, lamb, quail, roasted beetroot and osso buco.

PINOT NOIR SERVING TEMPERATURE Cool room temperature.

Climate: The 2019-2020 growing season was a little above average for temperature and growing degree days but cooler than the previous three seasons, which were all very high. The season was very dry, with only 43 mm (1.7 inches) of rain from 21 December to the end of harvest on 9 April. Budburst was five or six days early, and so was flowering. The dry season resulted in harvest coming in about ten days earlier than long term average. Where there was groundwater or drip irrigation, vines enjoyed good health and disease pressure was nil.

Soils: Well drained stony alluvium soils, and some imperfectly drained loams from the undissected older terraces.

WINEMAKING Hand-picked fruit was de-stemmed, crushed and cold soaked for five days then fermented at warm temperature with wild yeast in small open-top vats with 30% whole-bunch. Traditional submerging of the ‘cap’ by hand-plunging was followed by a light pressing.

The pinot noir was then aged in French oak barriques for 16 months. Bottled 14th July 2021