Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Noir 2020

Colour / Appearance: Deep ruby, with a crimson hue.

Aroma / Bouquet: Bright red fruits and cherry notes, underpinned with a hint of nutmeg spice and oak char.

Palate: A medium bodied wine, this Pinot Noir is full of lifted dark cherry, plum and aniseed flavours. These flavours integrate with the subtle use of savoury oak, on a bed of silky tannins that provide a long, supple finish to this wine.

Climate: This season was notable for being one of the warmest on record. Things started normally, with variable spring temperatures, wind and a number of rainy days. However, after Christmas, the region experienced a very hot, dry season. It also meant little or no disease pressure and the grapes able to picked with optimum flavours.

Grape Growing: The fruit for this wine was sourced from 4 vineyards located in the Awatere and Southern Valley sub-regions of Marlborough. All fruit for this wine was grown on a standard 2 cane trellis system. Shoot thinning was carried out during the growing season to ensure a healthy open canopy, and fruit thinning occurred later in the season to ensure all the fruit had concentrated ripe varietal flavours.

The fruit used to make this wine was carefully hand harvested on a cool Autumn morning, then destemmed and gently conveyed to various small, open-topped fermenters. After a cold soak, which generally lasted between 3-6 days, the must was let to warm naturally, and fermented using the wild yeasts found on the grapes. After approximately 15-21 days the wine was pressed off skins. We then transferred the wine to various French oak barriques (27% new), where it was let to rest for 10 months. After tasting and blending we filtered this wine and bottled it on the 4th March 2020.