Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Bendigo Pinot Noir 2022

Description

• French oak
• Dark cherry
• Boysenberry
• Delicate & succulent

"Light in colour but not in power which drives the flavours to a lengthy finish. Delicate, succulent wine which is clearly made from very ripe grapes but still manages to muster vibrant energy. Appealing wine" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, The Real Review, Feb 2024

Smoke, graphite and black cherry on the nose, immediately redolent of Bendigo. A powerful wine, with grip and texture starting early on the palate. There is an amalgam of plum, dark cherry, boysenberry fruit along with new leather, and warm schist rock. A full flowing finish, with great depth of tannin. We expect this wine to evolve with careful cellaring for 10 years.

Our Ghost Town wines are an exploration of the unique character of Central Otago sub-regions beyond our home in Bannockburn. Central Otago is dotted with the deserted relics of a mining era bygone. Located in Bendigo, once home to over 2000 Chinese miners during the 1860s and 70s, Ghost Town is planted in mature Pinot Noir. Planted in 2002, Ghost Town is at a high elevation rising from 340m to 382m. It sees slightly warmer temperatures than Bannockburn during the peak of the ripening period, although harvest can be a week or so later than our Bannockburn vineyards due to this elevation.

The 2022 season swung the pendulum again for Central Otago. This season was characterised by a very warm summer, punctuated by vital rain events, culminating in a bumper crop that was harvested 1-2 weeks ahead of long term average. The benign, warm flowering conditions in December resulted in excellent fruit set and healthy canopies that galloped through a dry January. They were replenished by rain in February before harvest began in mid-March and was wrapped up by mid-April.

A plethora of different clones contribute to this wine, 5, 114, 777, Abel, 667 and 115, all planted on our Bendigo vineyard. Where we were able to, we co-fermented all these clonal lots to enhance early integration. Most of the fruit was destemmed, with around 5% of the fruit retained as whole clusters to help build structural intensity and help reflect the unique characteristics of the site. The wine underwent a 6-day cold soak and was hand plunged once daily; this was followed by a 8-9 day natural fermentation with temperature peaking at 28°C during which time the ferment was plunged once daily. In total, the wine stayed on skins for 28-30 days prior to pressing, overnight settling and then went to barrel for 12 months. The wine went through malolactic fermentation in the spring, was racked to tank the following autumn and bottled, filtered but unfined, in September 2022.