INSIGHT Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2020

Showcasing varietal expression from this one location in a discrete location in the Southern Valley's region of Marlborough. Extremely stony soils, pure water direct from the Southern Alps running beneath. Diurnal temperatures are extreme. Resulting in a wine with distinctive expression: earthy (forest floor), herbaceous (currant leaf, straw), red fruits (cherry, plum, raspberry), floral (violet). Pretty. Soft & silky. Celebrates & accentuates the sensory aspects of a Single Vineyard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Target: adventurous consumers.

Grown on one site but several different soil types and different terraces around the property provided the blending options to make a focused and elegant wine. With Pinot Noir it’s about intensity so the crop is shoot thinned early in the season, followed by a green thin at veraison – by hand for precision. The use of both machine and hand plucking gave the fruit good exposure to take advantage of autumn heat and ripen phenolics. Fruit was hand harvested over nine days with seven passes through the vineyard.

In the winery, the fruit was 95% de-stemmed into stainless steel open top fermenters and cold soaked for several days before the ferments started with naturally occurring yeast. During ferment each batch was plunged three times daily to gently extract tannin and colour. Once dry, each batch was held at 20°C for a post ferment maceration before pressed off and transferred to French Oak for 11-months of maturation.