• French oak
• Blackcurrant & plum
• Spice & herbals notes
• Supple tannins

"Full, dark-red colour with a lighter edge and slight garnet hues. The nose is softly full and densely packed with intense aromas of ripe, dark-red and black-berried fruits with notes of dark plums, harmoniously melded with savoury dark herb elements, subtle earth notes and nutty oak suggestions. Medium-full bodied, the palate is fulsome and rounded with a deep and dense heart of ripe black-berried fruits along with black plums, entwined with complexing savoury herb notes. The mouthfeel is plush and rounded, with soft, but considerable tannin extraction lending a full and accessible palate with softly integrated acidity. The flavours carry with good structure to a full, fruity finish. This is a full, rounded and plush, black-fruited Pinot Noir with supple tannins providing good structure. Match with roasted lamb, beef and venison dishes over the next 5-6+ years. Hand-picked fruit, clones 5, 777 and 115 from the ‘Gum Emperor’ vineyard, Waihopai, fully destemmed and indigenous yeast fermented to 12.5% alc., the wine spending 35 days on skins and aged 17 months in 15% new French oak barrels" Raymond Chan, Jul 2018

Darker brooding aromatics are lifted by higher notes of violets, black currants and spice. Rich and intensely flavored, a true expression of the vineyards heavy clay soils. Flavors of black plums, licorice and earthy forest floor tones combine to form a truly complex wine. With careful cellaring this wine will develop further opulent layers of savory and spice notes that will be complemented by velvet mouth-filling tannins.

Hand harvested from Jackson Estates Gum Emperor vineyard, on the Waihopai Valley Road, Marlborough. The soil is 30cm of silt loam over a heavy Waihopai clay/gravel pan. The vineyard was not irrigated over the growing season.

Handpicked fruit. A pre-fermentation soak averaging 5 days preceded a warm and rapid indigenous fermentation where temperatures spiked between 30-33 C. Hand plunged.16 days on skins before being pressed to a mixture of new and older French oak barrels for maturation. Late spring natural malolactic fermentation. Early February each batch was gently removed from barrel before blending and preparation for bottling early March 2014. 10 months maturation in 100% French oak barrels.