Luna Blue Rock Pinot Noir 2019

Winter came late with August and September cold and wet. Jack Frost paid a visit with acatastrophic event occurring late spring resulting in heavy losses across the region. Wewere not spared, Eclipse vineyard was struck across the blocks closest to the terraceedge, losses estimated around 30%. High rainfall returned in November negativelyimpacting on the flowering stage, reducing crop levels significantly and makingmachinery work extremely difficult. To put it mildly; a highly challenging spring. Summer was hot and relatively dry. Harvest was earlier than usual with perfect weatherfor picking. In the end excellent quality fruit was harvested albeit in small quantities.

Hand harvested at Blue Rock Vineyard on the 22nd and 23rd of March. This vintage ofBlue Rock Pinot Noir was sourced from Pipers Block (1986 plantings), Jims Block (1995plantings) and Highfold Block C (1996 plantings). All bunches were 100% de-stemmed directly into two and three ton open topfermenters. Every effort is made to preserve as much “whole berry” as possible. This,along with the use of cooling helps to ensure a slow onset of full fermentation allowingthe native non–saccharomyces yeasts time to perform an initial ferment before thestronger, more dominant native saccharomyces yeast strains take over and completefull alcoholic fermentation. Plunging was limited to two times each day. Totalmaceration time for this vintage was between 20 – 30 days before gentle pressing. Allpress fractions are included in the final blend. Once the wine had settled in tank for three or four days it was transferred to French oakpuncheons for maturation. Malolactic fermentation completed naturally during thewinter of 2020. In total the wine spent 12 months in barrel. New oak in the finishedwine is around 20%. The only additions were sulphur dioxide post malo followed by asmall top up prior to bottling. Bottled Unfined and Unfiltered.

oak maturation for 12 months.