2022 Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Noir
$39.00
TASTING NOTE
Colour / Appearance: Medium purple in colour, with bright clarity.
Aroma / Bouquet: Lifted notes of fresh raspberry, plum and red cherries, with a hint of cinnamon, aniseed, and smoky oak notes.
Palate: Flavours of red cherries, blueberry, and Omega Plums, with gentle herb flavours and subtle oak notes entrenched on a silky, textured palate.
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 5-6 years if cellared correctly.
WINE ANALYSIS
Alcohol: 12.9%
Residual Sugar: Dry
Titratable Acidity: 5.3 g/L
pH: 3.76
VITICULTURE
Climate: The 2022 growing season started with soil moisture at capacity, following an unusually wet winter which had seen flooding in parts of the region. Pleasingly, the region did not suffer any major frost events and despite conditions in November being a little wet, the warmth that went with it meant that flowering was not drawn out and resulted in good fruit set and the prospect of healthy yields. The remainder of the season was punctuated by cooler weather and rainfall events and we were vigilant around disease pressure as we entered the harvest period. Harvest was later this year and Brix accumulation was slow. We experienced another rain event in the final third of March which then required us to harvest as quickly as possible in many blocks in order to retain pure fruit expression. This is where Whitehaven’s new receival building came to the fore, allowing greater throughput while maintain the quality focus and attention to detail that Whitehaven prides itself on.
Grape Growing: The grapes for this wine were grown in the Southern Valley’s (53%) and Awatere Valley (47%) of Marlborough. Multiple clones of Pinot noir were used to make this wine, with the vines trained to 2-cane VSP. The canopies are meticulously maintained over the growing season, ensuring beautifully ripe, clean fruit come harvest time.
Harvest Dates:Multiple harvest dates from the 6th March to 6th April 2022.
VINIFICATION
Winemaking: All the fruit used to make this wine was hand-picked during the cool Autumn mornings. At the winery, the fruit was gently loaded into our de-stemmer, and by using a conveyor the berries were loaded directly into various small, open-top stainless-steel tanks. After 3-4 days of cold soak, the must was allowed to warm and fermentation began, utilising either a wild yeast or inoculated with a selected strain. Following ferment, the wine was pressed off and settled overnight, then gently pumped to French oak barrels (20% new). The wine was left to mature for 10 months and then racked to tank. The wine was then filtered and finally bottled on the 23rd of March, 2023.
ACCOLADES
- A linear pinot noir with fine tannins, sliced strawberries and hints of cedar. It’s fresh and medium-bodied with integration and length. This is a fine example of subtle pinot at an excellent price. Drink now. Screw cap. James Suckling, 2024, 92/100 Pts.
