2020 Natural Pinot Gris 2020

Fermented on skins in a “natural” way to give an orange-apricot colour. Aromas of ginger, green olives and stone fruit on the nose. On the palate, texture and pithy citrus characters come from the skin contact. Fermented to dryness, we have created a stylistically different wine, with an emphasis on the textural components that skin fermented Pinot Gris can show.

2020 will be remembered as a truly unique vintage with the worldwide impact of Covid19 falling right in the middle of our harvest. Fortunately we were able to work through lockdown (as an essential industry) and complete what has turned out to be very a high quality vintage. Spring was generally benign - there were several light frost events, none of which were damaging, and lacked the strong winds we normally get during this time. We then experienced a prolonged dry spell from mid-December right through to late March where we only recoded 38mm of rain. This long extended, dry, warm summer was ideal for ripening with beautiful weather experienced right through April to enable us to pick all fruit in perfect condition. The wines look generous with lovely deep colour, fleshy fruit and silky tannins and a brooding weight and richness to them.

The grapes were carefully hand harvested and fully de- stemmed in the winery. We fermented the fruit in an open top 350L old oak barrel using natural yeasts. The wine was left on skins for a total of 11 days and lightly hand plunged every second day. Once the ferment went dry we pressed the wine to a five-year-old 228L oak barrique, maturing for five months on lees. This wine was bottled without fining or filtration and only a small sulphur addition pre- bottling.