Saint Clair Vicar's Choice Merlot 2016

Description

Rich and round with ripe juicy plums, blackberries and vanilla. A fine powdered silky structure with a touch of savoury oak to finish. Sweet ripe red plum and perfumed blackcurrant notes. 

Fruit was harvested from a number of specifically chosen, naturally low cropping vineyards from Marlborough’s Wairau Plain. The vineyards were carefully monitored as they ripened to full maturity and harvested at the end of April. Drinking well now, this wine will continue to develop and impress for up to five years from vintage date. 

Grapes were de-stemmed into small stainless steel fermenters for a five-day cold soak to help maximise flavour and colour extraction. The juice was inoculated with specialised yeast to complete fermentation and then hand plunged and pumped over for gentle extraction of flavour colour and tannin. The young wine was kept in contact with skins and tasted daily until the right extraction and balance was achieved then gently pressed. Once settled it was then racked to seasoned French oak where it underwent secondary fermentation (malolactic fermentation). After ageing on light lees the wine was blended, fined, balanced and carefully prepared for bottling