2020 Whitehaven Greg Pinot Noir
$60.00
TASTING NOTE
Colour / Appearance: Bright, pale ruby.
Aroma / Bouquet: Bright fruit notes such as raspberry, red and dark cherries, blueberries and hints of cinnamon, aniseed and thyme.
Palate: Dark cherry, plum, aniseed and baking spice flavours playfully dance around a core of savoury tones. The palate is generously textured with ripe tannins, and good acidity ensures a long, clean finish.
Cellaring: Although delicious now, we anticipate this wine will develop gracefully over the next 5-10 years if cellared correctly.
Food Match: Red meat, game and mushroom dishes would be an excellent match with this Pinot noir.
Serve: Room temperature.
Growers and sub-region: Andrew and Jan Johns, Wrekin Vineyard, Southern Valleys. This Pinot Noir is certified organic.
This wine is dedicated to the memory of our founder Greg White, 1952-2007, epitomising regional and varietal expression. This Pinot Noir was a selection of 11 exceptional barrels.
WINE ANALYSIS
Alcohol: 13.5 %
Residual Sugar: 1.0 g/L
Titratable Acidity: 5.8 g/L
pH: 3.48
VITICULTURE
Vine Management: Fruit for this wine was sourced from the Biogro certified Wrekin Vineyard, located in Brancott Valley. The fruit was picked in small batches over multiple harvest dates, ensuring that the fruit was picked at optimal ripeness.
Climate: 2020 was a classical growing season with plenty of sunshine, not too much heat through Summer and a return to cool nights preceding harvest, ensuring acidities and flavours remained bright and vibrant. This was all built on good rainfall pre-Christmas, which set the vines up with healthy working canopies that held through to the end of harvest. The weather over harvest was settled and dry, allowing fruit to be harvested in lovely condition.
VINIFICATION
Winemaking: The fruit was hand harvested during the cool Autumn mornings. At the winery the fruit was destemmed and loaded into various stainless-steel fermenters and old puncheons. A small portion of whole bunches (5-20%) was included into some of the ferments. After cold soak (between 3-6 days in duration), the must was let to warm up naturally before the onset of fermentation (primarily wild). The wine remained on skins for a total time of 16-21 days, before being pressed off and racked to various French oak barriques (28% new). The wine then remained in these barrels for 10 months, before finally being bottled on the 27th of May,2021.
Harvest Dates: 19th March – 30th March, 2020.
Certified Appellation Marlborough Wine, BioGro (organic) and Vegan Friendly.
ACCOLADES
- Aromas of red cherries, sweet paprika, rosemary and violet. Medium- to full-bodied with velvety tannins. Fresh on the palate with mineral undertones. Berry character. Sustainable. From organically grown grapes. James Suckling, 91/100 Points, Oct 2022.
- A serious wine with a bouquet of complexity and mystery, variety, spice and depth. Aromas of raspberry and plums, clay and wood smoke, barrel spices of vanilla and a touch of nutmeg. Still very youthful on the palate with fruit and barrel flavours that reflect the bouquet. The complexity continues to unfurl through textures from firm chalky tannins and ripe acidity, and as the wine opens out a layers of red flowers and stony clay minerality begins to intensify. A lovely example with best drinking from mid to late 2024 through 2034+. 94 Points Excellent, Top Wine of 2023, Cameron Douglas, January 2023, also in The Shout May 2024.
- Medium-bodied, high-energy pinot noir with moderately intense cassis, blackberry. plum and cherry flavours together with fresh herbs and integrated spicy oak characters. Good food wine with a crisp, dry and lingering finish. Should age well. Bob Campbell, 94/100 Points, July 2023.
- Moderately deep purple with a ruby hue, lighter on the rim. This has an enticing sweet bouquet with penetrating aromas of black cherry, ripe strawberry, thyme, mint, earthy clay, vanilla and spice. Medium-full bodied, aromas of black cherry and strawberry entwined with thyme, spearmint and an amalgam of spice, earthy clay nuance linger with fine-grained tannin extraction to a savoury finish. The wine has a silky framework supported by a lacy acid tang; earthy nuance and texture broaden the palate and leave a textural finish. This Pinot Noir is well-made and well-balanced, with attractive aromatics and structure. Match with lamb and duck over the next 5+ years. Handpicked fruit from Wrekin Vineyard, fermented in small batches to 13.5% alc, aged in French oak barrels for 10 months. Unfiltered. Organic certified. Candice Chow, 19/20 pts (95 pts)
