te Pa Reserve Collection Taylor River Pinot Noir 2019

This Pinot Noir possesses a complex and attractive spectrum of aromas of red fruits, liquorice, violets, and fresh tobacco.

The palate displays classic Pinot Noir characters of cherry and cranberry, with layers of five spice, cinnamon, and aniseed. The new oak provides some subtle coffee and mocha notes. The primary fruit is enveloped by fine, chalky tannins.

The Taylor River Vineyard is situated alongside the Taylor River shingle fan. The soils consist of loams, silts, clays and river gravels. The combination of clay and free draining soils makes this vineyard ideally suited for premium Pinot Noir. Mature low cropping clone 115 was used for this Reserve wine.

The fruit was handpicked from block 9 in the Taylor River Vineyard, on the 16th March 2019.

The block was fermented in three open top fermenters with different proportions of whole bunches in each tank (ranging from 0-30%). The three tanks were basket pressed to barrel where they underwent natural malolactic fermentation in spring. A selection of the six best barrels was made for the 2019 te Pa Reserve Pinot Noir. These were racked to tank after 11 months in oak. Then left to settle in tank for a further three months before being racked again and bottled without fining or filtration. A “less is more” approach was taken to the winemaking. The final blend consisted of 22% whole bunch and 33% new oak.