T-Bone South Australia Pinot Noir 2024 (Australia)

Description

Herbal, Oak, Plum

"Attractively fruited and inviting, the bouquet shows dark plum, dried herb, subtle spice, and toasted almond characters, leading to a finely flowing palate that's succulent and supple. Elegantly framed by fine tannins, making it delightfully drinkable. At its best: now to 2029" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jan 2025

Ripe raspberry, cherry, and red currants, combined with a lip-smacking fruit acidity create a truly cracking Pinot Noir that is medium-bodied, juicy, and incredibly moreish.

20 year old Pinot Noir vines grown on loam over limestone are hand pruned each year to achieve a careful balance between vigour and yield. Throughout the growing season various viticulture practices are applied to achieve a balanced yield including, shoot thinning, shoot positioning, crop thinning and partial root zone drying. These techniques are all applied to produce small bunches of intensely flavoured Pinot Noir grapes. The balanced crop is constantly assessed for seed ripeness, tannin ripeness, stem ripeness, flavour development and acid balance. When all aspects of maturity align, harvest is scheduled to take place during the cool morning hours, with the grapes being sorted as harvested.

Cool harvested and sorted grapes were transferred direct to small batch fermenters without crushing. Inoculated with a Burgundian yeast strain that enhances red fruit flavours with subtle extraction after 24 hours cold soaking assisted with additional extraction of flavour without excessive tannin. 7 days fermentation at 24-28 degrees with a percentage of whole berries is undertaken, with gentle cap management applied individually to each batch to achieve balance extraction before the must and berries are gently pressed. Immediately following pressing the wines were transferred to 50% second fill French barriques and 50% older French oak hogsheads for natural malo-lactic and a further 8 months maturation on yeast lees prior to racking and blending. Maturation on yeast lees has further developed palate weight and texture, producing a versatile modern Pinot Noir.