Decibel Single Vineyard Martinborough Pinot Noir 2017

Description

• Balanced oak
• Baked cherry pie
• Rosemary
• Dusty tannins

Baked Cherry Pie and toasted nuts oscillate the nose with hints of earthy mushrooms and grainy raspberry that will develop as the wine ages. Rosemary, sweet tobacco, bing cherry, wet leaves, red currant, and hints of violets and bay leaves all contribute to the complex and alluring nose of this wine. The palate is vibrant and crunchy in its youth with slightly edgy ‘minerality’. The wine has a medium body with a bit of white pepper, spice and dusty tannins on the finish.

Martinborough sits in a perfect Pinot Noir pocket on the lower North Island. To the west of Martinborough is the Rimutaka Mountain ranges, protecting the region from the westerly rains. To the southeast lies the Aorangi Range and due east are the foothills leading up the coast of the North Island. There is, however, some exposure to the cold southerlies coming up through Palliser Bay in the spring that limit flowering and result in low yielding vines producing fruit of high intensity. This single vineyard wine was produced from a dry-farmed block with a unique soil structure for Martinborough with clay over top of free draining old riverbeds. Slightly more elevated than the typical river terrace soils than most of Martinborough, this vineyard has great exposure with a northeast aspect. The vines are planted in mostly Dijon clones of 667, 777, 114 and 115, with a few rows of UCD Clone 5, half of which are planted on their own rootsock. The vineyard is maintained organically with no weedsprays or pesticides.

After a very mild and somewhat cloudy Summer, the fruit was picked in one day ahead of cyclone approaching. The fruit was separated and fermented by clones. Light, gentle plunging in small fermentation tanks with 10% whole bunches in the mix of half of the fermentations. The ferments were on skins for 2 to 3 weeks and then pressed gently through a small basket press. They were settled in tanks and then put to barrel where they slowly went through secondary fermentation, finishing in the spring. Each barrel was evaluated and then chosen for the final blend and bottled the following year in February resulting in 10 months in French barriques with 10% new oak, 20% 2 and 3 year old oak and the balance in neutral oak. The wine was then left in bottle for an additional 18 months before being released in August 2019.