Terra Sancta Estate Central Otago Pinot Noir Rosé 2022

Description

• Dry style
• French oak
• Wild berries
• Mineral

"Silken-textured Rosé with raspberry, cherry/berry and savoury flavours that are subtle and lengthy. A backbone of tangy acidity and fine tannins promote a crisp and refreshingly dry finish. Serious Rosé and a good food wine" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review

"Fabulously elegant and delicately fragrant, the wine shows white flesh stone fruit, lemon pith, apple and floral aromas with a hint of sweet strawberry. The palate is equally charming with fine focus and silky flow, beautifully complemented by juicy fruit flavours and vibrant acidity, finishing lingering and
delightfully crisp dry. At its best: now to 2025" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, 2022

"From one vintage to the next, this is one of the country's top Rosés. Estate-grown and hand-harvested, the youthful 2022 vintage (5*) is principally (85 per cent) from vines planted in Sarah's Block in 1995. It was mostly handled in tanks, but 36 per cent was fermented in old French oak barrels. Pale pink, it is fresh and vibrantly fruity, with strong peach and strawberry flavours, showing a distinct of complexity, lively acidity and a slightly off-dry (5.7 grams/litre of residual sugar), very harmonious finish. Best drinking mid-2023+" Michael Cooper, 2022

A gorgeous pale salmon hue, its fragrance is lifted and beguiling with hibiscus and wild red berries. A wine of great energy, it is complex and concentrated on the palate with apricot kernel, mandarin pith and provencal herbs. With distinctive minerality, it possesses lovely mouthfeel and a touch of tannin from skin contact and barrel fermentation. A seamless Rosé of great balance and poise, it has outstanding persistence.

Made from Terra Sancta Estate vines on Felton Road identified as the best for Rosé, over 85% of the fruit is handpicked from mature own rooted vines on Sarah’s Block planted in 1995, with the remaining Pinot Noir from Riverblock. For Terra Sancta, vintage 2022 marked six years of no-till regenerative agriculture. With our slow winter sheep grazing, and permanent flock of sheep and hens, the 51 tonnes of annual animal generated compost have made a real impact on our vine health and the health of the grapes. With every barrel and tank being a healthy native ferment (from Mysterious Diggings to Estate, and our Single Blocks), we have added nothing to any ferment. No acidification or any winemaker tricks - just pure vineyard.

2022 delivered a rare combination of both quality and quantity. Not only did the season provide us with an abundance of great quality fruit, but the fruit possesses the qualities generally seen in much lower yielding vintages - purity and intensity of flavour. Our longest harvest on record, with all fruit handpicked, this was contributed to by the yields and a slow ripening period during April, with the final day of harvest being 13 May 2022. The first of our 2022 wines for release, this Rosé displays the balance and purity we would expect to see across our portfolio.

Picked - as always - from Sarah’s Block and Riverblock - the Rose was hand harvested in 9 small parcels, ensuring that each pick was made at perfect balance. Each parcel spent between 2 and 26 hours on skins to pick up a little colour and texture, before being gently pressed. The outstanding quality of the fruit led to 100% native fermentation, with 36% of the ferment taking place in neutral french oak barrels, helping build layers of complexity into a wine of precision, balance and purity. Bottled at Terra Sancta estate in August 2022.

Food Pairing: Very food friendly and versatile, this is the perfect wine to choose when a wide range of food is being eaten making it perfect for tapas, antipasto, long multi-course lunches and whenever “shared plates” are the order of the day.