Tohu Awatere Valley Marlborough Pinot Noir 2023

Description

Cherry, Herbal, Oak

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 grapes for this wine were sourced from our Awatere vineyard which is located on the river terraces of the Awatere River, overlooked by the mountain Tapuae-o-Uenuku. The Awatere is on average much cooler, drier and windier than other sub-regions in Marlborough, resulting in a longer growing season and intense flavour development. The 2022/2023 growing season was notable for the La Niña weather system which brought wet and cold weather to the Marlborough region throughout both spring and summer, however this generally unfavourable weather gave way to a long run of dry and sunny days leading up to harvest. The fruit benefited from a longer ripening period on the vine, with perfectly ripe fruit in excellent condition harvested during late March and early April 2023.

Hand-harvested grapes were gently destemmed and gravity feed into small open top vessels, which were then chilled for 5 to 7 days before being warmed for fermentation. Following a fast, warm ‘wild’ 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 then naturally underwent malolactic fermentation once the temperatures started to warm again in spring. The wine was carefully monitored over this time, and after this secondary fermentation was complete, rigorous blending and classification decisions were then made by the winemaking team. Once the final blend was made, the wine was left to settle a few more months before being bottled without the need for fining in late-March 2024.