Mission Estate Vineyard Selection Marlborough Pinot Noir 2018

Description

This 2018 Pinot Noir has a bright colour and a charming bouquet of cherries and red fruits. The palate is plush and carries very vibrant fruit and ripe tannins. The wine is complex, supple and with a sweet and long finish. Produced to provide drinking pleasure in the short term; this Pinot Noir will develop more complexity over the next 5-10 years.

The fruit was grown on Mission’s vineyard in the Awatere Valley. They have two Pinot blocks totaling 7.5 hectares in area, on the Northern side of the vineyard. Soils on this part are a fine light loess with some stones. The climate is very dry and the vigour very low, so bunches tend to be small. We ended up with only just over 6.5 tonnes per hectare of fruit with tight bunches and tiny berries. Fruit was transported to our winery in Hawke’s Bay for fermentation.

The fruit was crushed to a fermenter and after a short cold soak, the ferment kicked off with yeast that was specially selected for this wine. The plunging regime was once daily to the end of fermentation. Post ferment maceration was conducted for 11 days. After daily tasting to find when the wine had gained its optimum texture it was run off and pressed to tank for MLF before going to barrel and stainless steel for ageing.