• French oak
• Red cherry & raspberry
• Rose petal & violet
• Chalky tannins

"This wine is a 100% clone 777, 40% whole-cluster, unfiltered wine from the Upper Awatere valley. Delicately perfumed pinot noir with floral, rose petal, violet, cherry and subtle savoury and crushed herb characters. An appealing and distinctive wine that successfully balances fruit sweetness against a sinewy texture. Approachable now but should age very well. Drink 2019 - 2026" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Aug 2019

"Delicately perfumed pinot noir from the Upper Awatere valley with floral/rose petal/violet, cherry and subtle savoury/crushed herb characters. Vibrant, poised wine that balances fruit sweetness with ripe tannins to give a sinewy texture. Approachable but with potential" Gourmet Traveller Wine, Jan 2020 Issues

"A bouquet of complexity, charm and curiosity. Aromas suggest a mix of light red fruits from pitted cherries of all colours to apple skin and ripe summer strawberries. The oak signature is clear with delicate baking spices. A savoury line runs through the fruit seamlessly. The palate reveal some familiar pinosity with light red fruit flavours and chalky tannins, plenty of acidity with contrasting oak and fruit sweetness. Well made, still youthful with best drinking from today with food or from late 2021 through 2026" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Oct 2019

The Upton Downs Pinot Noir is a juxtaposition of perfume and structure. The elevated single vineyard on the terraces above the Awatere River gives elegance and delicacy of fruit while the 40% whole bunch fermentation and manual punch-downs delivers an impressive tannin framework and excellent length on the palate. Bright raspberry, red cherry and currant unite with graphite, forest floor and subtle smoked bacon. This is a wine that will get more intriguing and complex with cellaring, assisted by its whole bunch fermentation characters and low-toast savoury oak regime. It has years of evolution ahead of it.

Summer of the 2017 vintage was relatively cool and windy, which resulted in a below average fruit set due to patchy flowering conditions. This heralded small berry numbers but January rains increased the berry size giving pretty rather than muscular wines. The initial harvest weather, in March and early April, was favourable and meant that the Pinot Noir which came in during this time was in pristine condition, avoiding the rains in later April which caused issues for some vineyards. The Upton Downs vineyard on its elevated terrace was hand-harvested on the 11th April 2017.

This Pinot Noir is sourced from a single vineyard located in the Awatere Valley on Upton Downs Road. The mixture of old clay soils interspersed with loamy gravel on the terraces above the Awatere River assist with ensuring naturally low vigour. Fruit thinning just prior to veraison ensured a low yield as well as small concentrated berries. The small parcel we hand-picked is 100% Clone 777, a Burgundian clone known for its perfumed aroma profile. The vineyard is cane pruned and VSP trained.

Blank Canvas consider Pinot Noir as one of Marlborough’s most eminent varieties. Matt’s time spent in Europe has given him the best of both worlds: he learnt from the regions with centuries of knowledge pertaining to this enigmatic, magical grape and has combined it with Marlborough’s innate ability to produce blockbuster, perfumed aromatics in an elegant but serious Pinot Noir framework. The handpicked bunches were cold-soaked for 5 days before undergoing spontaneous fermentation by natural yeasts. The wine was hand-plunged during its ferment which included 40% whole clusters. The wine was pressed to French oak barriques, all of low-toast level (35% proportion new) for 12 months, with a further 3 months in tank to gently and naturally settle. We bottled the wine without any filtration on the 2nd August 2018, releasing it the 1st June 2019.