Judge Rock Pinot Noir 2019

Bright garnet with purple hues. Fragrant with blackberry, red cherry, cloves, liquorice, violets, chocolate, dried herbs and spice. Full and silky with black stonefruit, blackberries and boysenberries. Nice weight on the mid palate with lovely fine grained tannin and subtle oak notes leading to a long finish of cherries and Christmas cake spice.

westerly facing from most southern wine sub region in the world Our westerly facing vineyard misses the early morning sun but bakes in the late sun. We cordon prune to 4-5 spurs per side to control the crop load. Vines are tended by hand 12-14 times a season with shoot thinning to two shoots per spur, tucking up, lateral removal, bunch thinning to 2 bunches per shoot, shoulder removal and leaf plucked for maximum sun exposure pre-veraison, removal of non-coloured bunches post veraison Bunch weights averaged 80g per bunch. This is the first year of Certified Organic Pinot Noir.

The fruit was hand harvested on the 18th and 19th of April 2019 at 23.7 brix and was destemmed into stainless steel tanks followed by fermentation carried out by indigenous wine yeasts until the wine was dry. The wine was aged in French Oak barriques for around 10 months, of which 29% was new oak.

10 months in French Oak 29% new