Saint Clair Vicar's Choice Marlborough Pinot Noir 2023

Description

Coffee, Oak, Raspberry

"Youthfully charming and fragrant, the bouquet shows sweet cherry, strawberry, olive, and mixed spice aromas, followed by a nicely flowing palate that's juicy and smooth. Well balanced and elegant, offering friendly drinking. At its best: now to 2028" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jan 2025

Rich and dark with a medley of berry fruit flavours and a long toasty finish. Rich garnet red. Ripe summer berry fruit with savoury notes and a hint of toasted oak. A rich and fruit forward Pinot Noir with flavours of ripe boysenberry, black cherry and raspberry with a hint of spice. Elegant with a smooth, refined structure leading to a long toasty finish. Drinking beautifully from release date, wine can be enjoyed young or cellared carefully to gain greater complexity over the next three years.

The fruit was sourced from a number of specifically chosen, low cropping vineyards from the Southern Valleys region of the Wairau Plain. Leading up to harvest each vineyard was closely monitored and tasted to determine when the flavours were at their optimum. The fruit was then harvested in the cool hours of the morning.

At the winery each batch (or vineyard) was held cold for five days prior to fermentation to help with colour and flavour extraction. The juice was then inoculated with yeast for the primary alcoholic fermentation and hand plunged up to eight times daily during the height of fermentation. When dry each batch was pressed to tank, settled and then racked off gross lees to either stainless steel tanks or a mixture of new and older seasoned French oak. The wine underwent 100 per cent malolactic fermentation before being blended, fined, lightly filtered and gently prepared for bottling.

Food Pairing: Well matched with garlic and rosemary lamb rack with a side of fresh lettuce and pistachio salad.