2018 Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Noir
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TASTING NOTE
Colour / Appearance: Deep ruby, with a garnet hue.
Aroma / Bouquet: Lifted red cherries and raspberry with hints of floral notes, underlined with aniseed and cinnamon spice notes.
Palate: A medium-bodied wine with a silky, fine texture, this eloquent Pinot Noir displays notes of red and dark fruits. These fruit flavours are balanced with subtle oak char and spice notes.
Cellaring: Will age well with careful cellaring for three to six years.
Food Match: Try this wine with game meats such as duck or venison.
Serve: Room temperature.
WINE ANALYSIS
Alcohol: 13.5%
Residual Sugar: 2.3 g/L
Titratable Acidity: 4.8 g/L
pH: 3.56
VITICULTURE
Harvest Dates: 21st March – 11th April 2018
VINIFICATION
Vine Management: The fruit for this wine was mainly sourced from 2 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.
Winemaking: The fruit for this wine was hand-harvested in the cool Marlborough Autumn mornings. Most of the fruit was de-stemmed and transferred to various open-top fermenting vats in the winery. The fruit was then left to cold soak for 4-6 days prior to fermentation. The fermentation occurred spontaneously with yeast native to the vineyard. Extraction was done by hand-plunging (pigeage) 2-3 times daily to ensure gentle colour and flavour extraction. The temperature was allowed to peak at 32°C. The wine was then pressed off as soon as it reached dryness and then racked to new (36%), 1 and 2-year old French oak barrels. The heavy pressings were kept separate. The wine was left to mature in barrel and underwent natural malo-lactic fermentation in spring. After 10 months the wine was removed from barrel, blended and filtered before bottling on 6 March 2019.
ACCOLADES
- 'It’s attractively ripe and beautifully lifted on the nose showing sweet cherry, dried herb, clove and toasted nut characters with subtle mushroom complexity. The palate displays elegant weight and lovely rounded mouthfeel, well supported by juicy fruit flavours and supple tannins, offering delightful drinking. At its best: now to 2022.' 90/100 Points, Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, NZ
- 'Fragrant and fruity, floral and varietal with aromas of cherry and plum, some cranberry and baking spices, soft mineral core and lite toasty oak suggestions. On the palate - dry, youthful, fruity and medium weighted wine with flavours of roses, lite red berry fruits and soft baking spices of oak. Fine tannins with medium+ acidity, a core of berry flavours, some tea and stony mineral moments. Balanced, well made and ready. Best drinking from today and through 2023.' 90/100 Points, Cameron Douglas, NZ
