Redolent in cherry and spice, with hints of strawberry, game and pinot's characteristic velvety texture, this is a subtle, seductive wine of great charm and poise. Enjoy slightly cooler than the usual Australian reds but not too cold as the acids will stand out.
REGION NOTES
Australian pinot noir has perhaps found its ideal home on the cool, profoundly maritime-influenced Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. With its confusing jumble of hills and valleys and ocean glimpses from many sites, the region has numerous subclimates and a variety of temperature ranges.
Vintage Notes
The 2009 Vintage in Victoria will always be a stark reminder of the power of Mother Nature characterized by the ferocious ‘Black Saturday' bushfires that devastated large areas of the State. By contrast the Mornington Peninsula remained isolated from the damage and despite hot conditions those vineyards that did not remove leaf were rewarded with high quality grapes with strong varietal flavour and intensity.
Winemaking Notes
The challenge of making a wine from another region is to maintain the integrity of that region without compromise. In order to achieve this we rely on the expertise of our partnership with Montalto and their attention to detail in terms of harvest timing and quality of selective hand picking. Once harvested the grapes are trucked directly to our Mudgee winery in half tonne bins where they arrive in pristine condition. We employ a number of techniques to each batch which may include fermenting whole bunch, crushed and de-stemmed grapes or a combination of both in our five tonne open-top fermenters. Depending on the direction each batch takes we also vary the frequency of plunging, drain and returns and pre- and post-fermentation maceration. When ready we drain and press the wine via our basket press and transfer the wine into high quality tight grain French oak for natural malolactic fermentation. We tend to use only a small percentage of new oak as we are trying to capture purity of fruit and regionality. Periodic tasting allows us to follow the development of each batch and determine the final blend prior to bottling.
Wine Statistics
BARREL AGEING: 10 months
CELLARING: 5-7 years
ALC/VOL: 13.0%
RS: 0.35g/litre
pH: 3.54
TA: 6.23/litre