Trig Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015

This is quite an elegant Pinot, with aromas of crushed violets, bright red fruits and white truffle. The fleshy palate has a subtle linear acidity and ripe chalky tannins. Layers of complexity evolve in the mouth and the wine tails off nicely, with a long finish.

Situated in the Bendigo sub-region of Central Otago, the site is north facing and has a variety of slopes and elevations creating a range of microclimates. The soil profile consists of silt overlying clay, lime and schist fragments.

The fruit was hand harvested from the upper slopes of the vineyard. 80% of the fruit was de stemmed into French oak cuves and the rest was added as whole bunch. The cuves were naturally fermented with gentle hand plunging. Post ferment maceration was 18 days. The clones 115 and 777 were then racked off into a mixture of seasoned and new (25 %) French barriques, where it underwent malolatic fermentation and was left to mature for 18 months. The Able clone was racked into 500 L puncheons, as this format of barrel is more suited to the delicate aromatic expression we find in Able. As we age this wine in barrel for 18 months, we use very tight grained French oak which has been air dried for 3 years. It was then racked off lees and bottled. Clones: 75% 115, 20% Abel, 5% 777.

We age this wine in barrel for 18 months,