Sweet-scented berry fruits with underlying oak-derived elements of toast and smoke characterise the aroma of The King’s Wrath Pinot Noir. The use of stems in fermentation give the wine a subtle perfumed forest floor and spice character. The richly-dense palate is built on layers of blackboy peach and red currants while a fine tannin structure contributes to tightness and length, as well as retaining freshness due to bright Marlborough acidity.

Sourced from selected Pinot Noir vineyards in the Southern Valleys of Marlborough.

Vintage 2017 delivered a smaller than predicted crop for Marlborough’s wine industry, ensuring the vibrant, fruit-driven wines the region is so well known for, were achieved. Summer started early with warm weather leading to good flavour development, indicating the potential for great wine. Vineyard staff and winemakers spent plenty of time in those early days of the season, working out how to get the best balance from the vines – and ultimately into the wines. Nature threw in some challenges along the way, with a major November earthquake, a cool and windy summer and stints of rain in Autumn. Rigorous vineyard management and careful harvest decisions have ensured the Marisco wines have an exciting spectrum of flavours from the harvested grapes. A growing year of challenges – resulting in wines to remember!

Various Pinot Noir clones were lovingly hand-picked and destemmed into small, open-top fermentation tanks. Whole clusters were also added to select vessels to add complexity and structure to the resulting batches. Cold maceration was carried out for 5-7 days before a swift, warm fermentation. Ferments were plunged up to 4 times a day to increase the extraction of colour from the grape skins. After fermentation, batches were left for up to a week on their skins to soften the palate and increase the length and breadth of the wine. Once pressed off, the batches were individually aged in French Oak puncheons (50% new) for 10 months in which they underwent full malolactic fermentation.

Food Pairing: Highly versatile, this wine matches well to most dark meats, mushrooms as well as rich fish such as tuna or trout. We recommend enjoying The King’s Wrath 2017 with a confit duck leg served with wild mushroom risotto and smoked goats cheese.