Auntsfield 'Heritage' Pinot Noir 2020

COLOUR: Deep ruby, very intense.

AROMA: Savoury and complex aromas of exotic spices, dark berry fruits and floral notes. Hints of cocoa and roasted almonds.

PALATE: The palate is immensely dense and concentrated and shows an elegant complexity. Luscious dark fruit flavours integrating gamey spice. The wine has an intense depth and yet silky fine tannin structure, giving seamless length and many years of aging potential.

The Southern Valleys is a sub region within Marlborough where the climate is cooler and drier. With its mix of high mineral Greywacke rock and old low fertility Loess clay soils, the Southern Valleys is regarded for its riper styles of wine with more structure, texture and minerality.

This wine is made with a sense of place. The steep clay hillsides at Auntsfield give us fruit with great density, complexity and tannin structure. Winemaking is carried out with a desire to reveal these characters in the wine. The fruit is hand harvested and gravity fed into an open top oak vessel with a proportion of fruit being whole bunch fermented. This was hand plunged once fermentation begins. The wine was kept on skins for an extended period following fermentation before being aged in oak for 14 months.