2021 Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Noir
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TASTING NOTE
Colour / Appearance: Deep purple in colour, with bright clarity.
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.
Food Match: Particularly suited to game meat dishes such as venison and duck, but also a wonderful accompaniment to other red meat dishes. Serve at room temperature.
Serve: Room temperature.
Cellaring: Although delicious now, we anticipate this wine will develop gracefully over the next 5-7 years if cellared correctly.
WINE ANALYSIS
Alcohol: 13.7%
Residual Sugar: Dry
Titratable Acidity: 5.8 g/L
pH: 3.64
VITICULTURE
Climate: 2021 will be remembered as a season of two halves. The early part of the growing season was marked by two severe frost burn events which affected much of the region to varying degrees. This was followed by variable cool and wet weather through flowering, resulting in fewer berries setting per bunch, further reducing crops after the frost damage. Post-Christmas however, we could not have asked for a better season. The weather remained warm, but not hot, and we had beautiful diurnal shift leading into harvest, retaining freshness and energy in the fruit and providing the perfect conditions for flavour development. With the light crops, harvest was underway earlier than usual, and it was only in the final days of the harvest that we encountered some wet weather events that the winery was easily able to work around.
Grape Growing: The fruit for this wine was grown in the Awatere (54%) and Southern Valley’s (46%) of Marlborough. The vines are trained to 2-cane VSP and over the growing are carefully managed to ensure clean, ripe fruit come harvest.
Harvest Dates: Multiple harvest dates from the 6th to 26th March 2021.
VINIFICATION
Winemaking: The fruit used to make this wine was all hand-picked during the cool Autumn mornings. At the winery the fruit was put over a shaker table to remove any dried-up berries, then destemmed and conveyed to a range of 4-tonne, stainless steel fermenters. A small portion of whole bunches was incorporated into some of the ferments. After cold soak (3-7 days), the ferment started, usually utilising wild yeast. After fermentation the wine remained on skins for a week or so before pressing off. The wine was then 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.
ACCOLADES
- Double Gold, New Zealand International Wine Show, 2023
- The 2021 vintage (4.5*) was grown and hand-harvested in the Awatere Valley and Southern Valleys, and French oak-aged. Deep, bright ruby, it is mouthfilling and very youthful, with concentrated, ripe cherry, plum and spice flavours, seasoned with nutty oak, fresh acidity and moderately firm tannins. Showing very good complexity and harmony, it's well worth cellaring to 2025+. Michael Cooper, Buyer's Guide, 4.5*
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Deep purple with a ruby core, lighter on the rim. This has a savoury bouquet enveloping aromas of thyme, black cherry, black raspberry, nutmeg and cinnamon quill. Medium-full bodied, aromas of black cherry and black raspberry melded with thyme, nutmeg and cinnamon and lingering with black pepper to a sustained finish. The fruit shows good depth and acidity balance, flows harmoniously with silky tannin possesses light firmness, providing structure and a chewy mouthfeel. Match this with pork chops and roasted duck over the next 3-4 years. Fermenetd to 13.5% alc. Vegan friendly. Candice Chow, 18.5/20 pts (93 pts) Aug 2023
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2023 Mundus Vini Spring Tasting: Silver
