te Pa Pinot Noir 2019

The 2019 te Pa Pinot Noir is tightly coiled, dense, and ripe with dark brooding fruit. It possesses complex aromatics, with sweet ripe fruits, savoury earthy notes, and stem and oak spice. The palate displays plums and dark cherries alongside brambly berry fruit, anise and cinnamon spice. The fruit is encased in supple tannins, ensuring this wine will age gracefully for years to come.

The Taylor River vineyard is situated alongside the Taylor River shingle fan. The soil consists of loams, silts, clays and river gravels. The combination of clay and free draining soils and gravels makes this vineyard ideally suited for premium Pinot Noir production.

The grapes for the wine were comprised of clone 115, which was hand harvested and fermented in batches in 6T open top fermenters. Most of these batches were fermented with 5-30% whole bunches. These whole bunch components express perfumed floral aromatics, succulent red fruits and lingering spice flavours. The individual batches were all cold soaked for 5-7 days and left on skins for a further 7-15 days post-fermentation to build structure and harmonise the tannins.

The wine was matured in French oak barrels for 11 months – 40% of which were new.