Decibel Single Vineyard Martinborough Pinot Noir 2019

Description

• French oak
• Cranberries
• Mushroom
• Chalky tannins

Dark and beastly in colour and on the nose. Wild blackberries and cranberries on the nose with hints of overt mushroom and petrichor. The front palate is rich and firm followed by a dense mid-palate of spice, juicy charcuterie, and wild black cherry. The finish has hints of chalky, lingering fruit tannins with hints of cardamon, cinnamon, and a dark, edgy suppleness.

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 lowyielding vines producing fruit of high intensity. This single-vineyard wine was produced from an organically run, dry-farmed block with a unique clay soil structure over top of free-draining former river bed. Slightly more elevated than the typical river terrace soils than most of Martinborough, this vineyard has heat exposure with a northeast aspect. The vines are planted in mostly Dijon clones of 667, 777, 114, 115, as well as Clone 5 half of which are planted on their own rootstock. The vineyard has always been run organically but will achieve full certification in 2021.

After a relatively warm and dry summer, there was a heat spike right towards vintage. This resulted in a race to handpick all the fruit across the vineyard in time before it became too ripe. We did achieve this and were able to capture a range of ripeness and flavours across the vineyard. While the vintage will go down in history as a hot one, with dark tannins and big, fleshy wines. We were pleased with the finesse and tension we were able to capture at harvest.

After hand harvesting by clone across the vineyard into small crates the grapes were destemmed and crushed however leaving some whole bunch (5-50%) and stems in the ferments ranging from 1 tonne to 3-tonne ferments. Some ferments were inoculated and some were fermented wild. The wine was then pressed into the tank and settle for one or two days before putting into French oak barriques (15% ne), unsulphured but kept cold over winter. In the spring the barrels were allowed to warm up naturally and finish malolactic fermentation. A small amount of sulphur was added post-MLF and kept cold over summer before being blended and went to bottle with no fining in February 2020. The wine was then aged in bottle for 18 months before its release in August 2021.