• French oak
• Red & black fruits
• Dried herbs
• Integrated tannins

Concentrated aromas of red and black fruits overlay a background of dried herbs, spice and cedar. To taste, the flavor profile is a combination of savory and spice notes, rich and ripe flavors, all without losing precise pinot noir detail. Tannins are firm but integrated, leaving a lasting impression of texture, concentration and not least; definitive vineyard and southern Marlborough clays character

Fruit was sourced from their two clay bound vineyards (Gum Emperor and Somerset blocks) in the southern Waihopai Valley.

Growing season 2017 will be one that will be remembered for years to come. Sunny, warm weather graced the region and their vineyards during all critical growth stages and carried on right through vintage till late April. Little to no rain during the summer months meant the bunches produced were smaller, with tight berry architecture and were highly concentrated. This lead to intense ripe flavours developing, and corresponding fruit purity in the final blended wines. Harvest progressed perfectly with little to no pressure to pick, and they were able to leave fruit out on the vine to get the most from the growing season. This will be long remembered as one of the best vintages in recent years at Jackson Estate. Multiple clones of 777, 667, 115, 114, UDC5, 10/5, 943 and Able were hand harvested over a 15-day period commencing on the 14th of March 2017.

Each parcel of handpicked fruit was gently destemmed into small open top fermenters retaining a large proportion of whole berries. A pre-fermentation soak averaging 5 days preceded a warm and rapid indigenous fermentation where temperatures spiked between 30-33 °C. All batches were hand plunged as per winemaker’s instruction. Post primary fermentation the young wines averaged 14 days on skins totaling up to 30 days before being pressed to a mixture of new and older French oak barrels for natural malolactic fermentation and maturation. Early February each batch was gently removed from barrel, tasted and assessed before blending and preparation for bottling early March 2018.