Forrest Marlborough Pinot Noir 2017

Description

"Combining sweet fruit aromas together with spicy nuances, the gorgeously expressed bouquet shows raspberry, dark cherry, olive, anise and cedar characters with subtle gamey complexity. The palate is succulent and wonderfully weighted, delivering juicy fruit intensity backed by silky texture and polished tannins, making the wine highly enjoyable. At its best: now to 2022" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Apr 2019

"100% Brancott grapes with a mix of clones. This is serious pinot noir at a very affordable price with savoury, stemmy, plum, dark berry and violet flavours. Quite a firmly-structured red, with a suggestion of herbs and spices. A little closed right now but shows potential" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Nov 2019

"Lovely refreshing aromatics with aromas of wild red flowers and light red fruits - cranberry, bing cherry and a little strawberry. These reveal fully on the palate with some peach and red zinger tea flavours, bright acidity and plush soft velvet textured finish. Lots to like here. Drink now and through the Summer of 2019"

Delicious aromas of raspberry, strawberry and black Dawson cherry with hints of violets. The taste is all dark fruit cake and plum, with hints of spice and savoury, “forest floor” aromas. It’s full, complex and delicious on the palate! Great drinking now but your patience will be rewarded by cellaring for 5+ years.

Vintage 2017 provided a challenge for the Marlborough Region, with a cooler than normal summer ripening season and then some extreme rainfall events at peak ripening time. Most of all, this vintage showed great winemaking decisions. Many wineries saw the weather warnings and got into the harvest; noting ripe flavours at lower sugar levels, meaning the resulting wines, while 0.5% lower in alcohol, are still rich and flavourful. With the ability to react quickly to a changing weather situation we were able to bring in 95% of the vintage before the first of the rain. Beth and John were out tasting the vineyards and with flavour development coming on at lower sugars it seemed there was nothing to wait for! The finished wines look great; flavourful, fresh and definitely showing finesse!

The cool climate queen of red wine is a natural match for Marlborough’s reliable cool and dry vintage climate. The grapes typically show ripe berry fruit flavours – raspberry and strawberry; that distinctive “Forest floor” earthen aroma and fresh acidity. This Pinot Noir is produced from the Southern Valleys vineyard, planted over 25 years ago -a very special site with geologically older soils composed of crushed river stones, intermixed with clay.

Harvested, crushed and then fermented in small batches in oak cuves to add complexity. The ferments are hand plunged, skin contacted post fermentation, gently pressed and then aged in a 20/80 blend of new/old French oak barriques for 10 months prior to blending and bottling in late summer.