Jackson Estate Vintage Widow Marlborough Pinot Noir 2018

Description

• French oak
• Dark cherry
• Barrel spices
• Firm tannins

"A youthful, varietal and complex bouquet with aromas of dark cherry and barrel spices, olive and dried herb, crush stone mineral soil suggestions, clove, smoke and a core of pinosity. New, youthful, tasty, complex and quite delicious on the palate. Red fruits flavours touch the palate first, but are quickly superseded by textures from tannins, acidity and wood smoke flavours and textures. Tannins are medium+ in intensity as is the acidity, the core of fruit coats the palate easily reflecting the darker cherry and berries suggested by the bouquet. A young wine with a taut texture - needing time to age, harmonise more and get ready. Best drinking from 2025 through 2035" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, 2022

Concentrated aromas of red and black fruits overlay a background of dried herbs, spice and cedar. To taste, the flavor profile is a combination of savoury and spice notes, rich and ripe flavors, all without losing precise pinot noir detail. Tannins are firm but integrated, leaving a lasting impression of texture, concentration and not least; definitive vineyard and southern Marlborough clays character.

Fruit was sourced from our two clay bound vineyards (Gum Emperor and Somerset blocks) in the southern Waihopai Valley.

Like 2017, Vintage 2018 was truly a mixed bag. Early in the season we had settled and very warm weather however later in the season there were challenges with several rain events and periods of cool weather. Judicious use of leaf plucking, and canopy management pre-vintage allowed us to dry out and successfully ripen the fruit after these events. As a result, we generally picked physiologically ripe fruit that was at a slightly lower Brix level resulting in soft elegant wines showing ripe succulent flavors.

Multiple clones of 777, 667, 115, 114, UDC5, 10/5, 943 and Able were hand harvested over a 12-day period commencing on the 7th of March 2018.

Each parcel of handpicked fruit was gently destemmed into small open top fermenters retaining a large proportion of whole berries. A pre-fermentation soak averaging 5 days preceded a warm and rapid indigenous fermentation where temperatures spiked between 30-33 °C. All batches were hand plunged as per winemaker’s instruction. Post primary fermentation the young wines averaged 14 days on skins totaling up to 30 days before being pressed to a mixture of new and older French oak barrels for natural malolactic fermentation and maturation. Early February each batch was gently removed from barrel, tasted and assessed before blending and preparation for bottling early March 2019.