Tohu Awatere Valley Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019

Description

• French oak
• Red cherry & plum
• Spicy florals
• Silky tannins

"Sweetly fruited and immediately appealing with dark cherry, strawberry, thyme, mushroom and roasted nut characters, it's succulent and supple in the mouth offering silky texture and rounded tannins. Beautifully styled and highly enjoyable. At its best: now to 2026" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Dec 2022

This elegantly structured Pinot Noir from Marlborough’s southern Awatere Valley displays aromatic layers of red fruit and spicy florals that lead to mouth-filling flavours of cherry, plum and finely integrated French oak. Balanced with soft, silky tannins, this wine has a delightfully long and lingering smooth finish.

The Awatere Valley is, on average, much cooler, drier and windier than other sub-regions in Marlborough, resulting a longer growing season and that results in intense flavour development. The 2018/2019 growing season began with some unsettled weather over flowering in December which resulted in low yields throughout the vineyards. However, the warm and dry summer that followed provided a dream run for both the vineyard and winemaking teams. With no disease pressure in the vineyard and ideal weather over the harvest period, grapes were able to be picked at optimal ripeness, resulting in a wine with outstanding aromatics, palate weight and texture.

Hand-harvested grapes were gently destemmed, and gravity fed into small open top vessels, then chilled for 7 days before being warmed for fermentation. Following a fast, warm ferment, the wine was pressed directly into French oak barriques. Allowed to age in our dedicated Pinot Noir barrel cellar for the winter months, the wine naturally underwent malolactic fermentation once the temperatures started to warm again in spring. Rigorous blending and classification decisions were then made by the winemaking team. Once the final blend was made, the wine was left to settle and develop a few more months before being bottled in late May 2020.