Ceres Composition Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017

Description

Magnificently composed and delightfully expressed, showing dark cherry, plum, vanilla, warm spice and olive characters with a touch of floral lift. Some savoury floral perfumes add to the interest.  Medium-full bodied, the palate has a rich and firm core of sweet fruit with packed, deep and dense flavours of dark-red and black cherries and berries intermingling with thyme herbs, some whole bunch stalk perfumes and a hint of reduction.  The palate is concentrated and beautifully rounded, delivering plush mouthfeel and succulent fruit intensity, leading to a persistent polished finish. At its best: now to 2022.

Ceres Bannockburn Pinot Noir is made up of fruit from 2 vineyards in the sub-region of Bannockburn, totalling 8 ha. The Inlet vineyard is Situated on a river terrace above the Bannockburn Inlet along Cairnmuir Road in Bannockburn.  Planted in 2002. The soils are loess ranging from 200 – 600mm on top off deep clay gravels, around 160,000 years old. On an elevation of 225-245m.  5.25 ha. The Black Rabbit vineyard is Situated on renshaw ridge above the Bannockburn Inlet. 3.46-hectare site with an elevation of 250 –315m.  Ancient geology ranging from 4 - 400 million years old.  The site is a steep North-east facing slope with windblown schist loess over bedrock schist.

2017 was an interesting growing season to say the least. A wet warm spring enabled fantastic early growth with plenty of moisture in the soil to keep the vines happy. A marked changed occurred in December where temperatures dropped, and we entered one of the least memorable summers in recent history. Poor weather in December caused flowering to last up to 3 weeks which drove lower crop levels throughout Central Otago. A longer slower ripening period was thankfully finished off by some warmer periods in March which enabled everything to reach full ripeness.

The fruit was harvested from the 4th - 24th April. The wine is a blend of 60% Inlet Vineyard and 40% Black Rabbit Vineyard. In total the fruit spent 28 days on skins; around 9 days cold soak, 8 days in ferment then 10-11 days post ferment. The wine was pressed to barrel and spent 12 months in barrel prior to a natural malolactic fermentation in the spring. The wine was filtered but not fined prior to bottling in May 2018.