The Ramsay Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017

Description

• French oak
• Red & dark fruits
• Violet & spices
• Textural edge

This wine has a beautifully expressive nose full of violet, spice and red and dark fruits. The mid palate is well weighted with a time textural edge, excellent fruit weight and a long finish. It shows the concentration to be expected from a vintage displaying smaller crop and berry size.

Central Otago fruit grown at the Ramsay Parkburn Vineyard in the Cromwell Basin.

After a relatively mild winter, the growing season started with a cool Spring and a Summer period that was cooler than the previous six seasons. This resulted in a slightly later flowering period and subsequent fruit-set in December. The fruit was hand-picked at optimum ripeness in 2 separate parcels on the 10th and 18th of April. The long slow ripening period delivered small, compact bunches and berries with intense flavours.

The fruit for this wine was processed at the winery in three separate ferments and was selected from 4 clones of Pinot Noir (777, 115, Abel & UDC5). All grapes were 100% destemmed to tank. This was done in order to have the three differing lots express as much individual character as possible without being influenced by stem character. Both wild and cultured yeast were used on the lots after the cuvees had been held cold for 5 days at under 12 degrees. Following fermentation, the wines spent approximately 5 days post fermentation maceration until the balance of tannin to fruit was achieved. The wines were then pressed to tank to settle overnight before being barrelled down to 28% new French oak barriques. The wines were inoculated for malolactic fermentation and then matured for ten months before bottling.