Greywacke Pinot Noir 2020

An intensely perfumed Marlborough pinot loaded with juicy strawberries, blackberries and blackcurrants - lightly infused with cloves, five spice and stem ginger. This is a deeply coloured wine exuding fruit sweetness, floral highlights and a distinct smoky fragrance. The full-flavoured palate is dense and generous with rich fruit, firm but delicate tannins and a delicious spicy finish.

All fruit was grown in Marlborough’s Southern Valleys and principally sourced from the Yarrum Vineyard, situated on the Brancott/Ben Morven ridge. Typical of this sub-region, the wind-blown loess soils are comprised of clay-loams with differing degrees of gravel content. The various source blocks are cultivated to a mixture of pinot noir clones, predominantly the Dijon clones 115, 777 and 667, with smaller parcels of UCD5 and AM 10/5. The vineyards are primarily hillside plantings trained to two-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) with a high vine density of 3,800 plants per hectare.

The grapes were hand harvested and chilled overnight prior to hand sorting. Most of the fruit was destemmed into open-top fermenters, with the remaining added as whole bunches. The fruit was left to soak on skins prior to the onset of indigenous yeast fermentation, then plunged daily. After fermentation, the wine was pressed, racked and filled into French oak barriques (30% new). Individual clones were barrel aged separately for 11 months, prior to blending in late February. The wine was bottled in November 2021.