Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Noir 2021

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

Aroma / Bouquet: Lifted red and dark cherry, black currant, with a savoury twist of thyme, aniseed, dark chocolate, and subtle oak derived notes.

Palate: Prominent cherry and plum flavours with a mineral crunchiness and energy. The palate has fine, silky tannins with crisp acidity, creating a long, elegant finish.

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.

Matured in French oak barrels for 10 months, of which 30% was new. After racking from barrel the wine was blended, filtered and then finally bottled on the 1st March, 2022.