Calvert Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2019

Description

• French oak
• Blackberry
• Earthy & spiced
• Smooth tannins

"Seductive and complex bouquet with scents of dark berries and sweet barrel spices, a core of crushed rock earthy complexity, nutmeg and vanilla, barrel smoke, dark raspberry and black currant, a whisper of insence and dark roses. In other words - complex and beguiling. Very youthful on the palate with a taut mouthfeel led by an abundance of chalky tannin textures and youthful acid line. The core fruit flavours repeat on the palate with wood spices and smoky barrel qualities adding complexity, breadth and depth. A rather fntastic wine, well made and ready to drink from 2024 through 2035+" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Mar 2022

"Elegant, youthful pinot noir with dark cherry, plum, floral/violet, vanilla bean and mixed spice flavours. A core of sweet fruit is perfectly balanced by gentle acidity and fine, peppery tannins. Accessible now but with good cellaring potential" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, May 2022

The 2019 Calvert Pinot Noir is dark ruby red in colour. The nose is dominated by savoury characters of earthiness, cinnamon spice, blackberry and dark plum aromas. This leads into a wine with silky textured smooth tannins. The earthiness thread becomes the backbone of the palate and is complemented by the rounded, brooding dark fruit characters and spiciness creating a luscious lingering mouth feel.

The Calvert vineyard is situated on Felton Road in Bannockburn, Central Otago and is organically certified. It has been owned by Owen Calvert and his family since 1989 (Planted in 2003) and is currently leased to Cloudy Bay. Since 2018 we have taken 2-3 tonnes of the fruit each year from 0.48 hectares to make a small quantity of high end Pinot Noir for the new Calvert wine label. The soil in the Calvert vineyard is deep silt loam with quartz specks throughout. Felton Road Wines used to manage and take fruit from this block but in 2013 the Calvert family sold a portion of their vineyard to Felton Road Wines. (FRW) The FRW portion of the Calvert vineyard is adjacent to the blocks which the Calvert family still own and are managed completely separately.

Using organically grown grapes of clones 115 and 10/5 from rows 28-33 of the Calvert vineyard, our 2.3 tonnes of Pinot Noir was hand harvested on 8th April 2019. The fermentation included 25% whole bunch and was completed using indigenous yeast. The 2019 was matured in 30% new French oak barrels for 14 months before bottling without fining or filtration in July 2020.