• French oak
• Dark plum & rose
• Savoury herbs
• Well balanced acidity

"A finely textured Pinot Noir with fruit characters showing well, Ready for the Christmas lamb! Will continue to open up and give satisfying sipping into 2022 and beyond" Peter Saunders, 2021

The 2020 vintage is showing densely full bodied dark plum and bramble with shist mineral notes. It is aromatic with violets, raspberries and rose petals and also has subtle savoury and herbal notes. Finishes with power, lingering concentration and well balanced acidity.

Toi Toi sources fruit from 3 sites in Central Otago – the Pisa area of the Cromwell basin from their estate owned vineyards, the lower river terrace area of Clyde and the rolling upper terraces of the Alexandra basin.  Each vineyard provides its own unique character to their Toi Toi Central Otago Pinot Noir. Pisa produces big fleshy, dark plum and bramble, firm tannins with power and concentration. The Clyde river terraces is very aromatic, violets and rose petals, with a wide array of red fruit (cherry and berry). Alexandra upper terraces produces dark raspberries and cherries, rosehip and tamarillo with powerful drive and fine tannin structure. All vineyards are north facing to make the most of the limited sunlight in what is the Southernmost grape growing region in the World. Harvested early to late April.

Harvested overnight and immediately transported to their Marlborough winery where the fruit is pumped directly to 6-10t open top stainless fermenters in the morning. It is left to cold soak for 5-7 days. The must (juice and skins) is gently plunged once a day while cold soaking. Around the 5th to 6th day signs of fermentation start to show. The tanks are warmed to 20C and the natural wild yeasts are encouraged to ferment the must. This process, once started, usually takes 7-10 days. During the height of ferment, the must is plunged 3-4 times/day to assist the extraction of tannins and colour. As the fermentation reaches completion the tanks are held at 20C for an additional 10-14 days for post fermentation maceration allowing the tannins to soften and integrating the tannic expression. During the post ferment period the young wine is tasted daily to assess its development and when it is deemed to have reached its full potential the wine is drained off its skins and the skins are gently pressed to extract the remaining free run wine. The wine is settled for 24hrs and a portion goes to French oak barrels while the remainder goes to stainless steel tanks for maturation on French oak staves. During this time of maturation, a natural secondary malolactic fermentation occurs. The wines are matured on/in oak for 10 months before blending. The wine was fined with egg whites in the traditional manner.