Two Paddocks Central Otago Pinot Noir 2024

Description

Cherry, Herbal, Oak

"Youthful and enticing, the bouquet shows dark plum, blueberry, violet, cured meat, and toasted nut aromas. The palate displays bright fruit flavours with spicy nuances, splendidly supported by silky texture and fine tannins, making it harmonious and balanced with a lengthy, delectable finish. Certified organic. At its best: now to 2036" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Oct 2025

"From four vineyard sites this wine is the flagship and delivers. Aromas of equal parts dark berries and skin, savoury wild spices and oak. Dry, taut, focused and fleshy, an abundance of texture from tannins and acidity framing core fruit flavours of dark plum and boysenberry, raspberry and blackcurrant moments. Violet and wild rose" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier

Thoughtful and evocative, the Two Paddocks 2024 shows exotic wild herb, red brick and shist derived aromatics. This drives the entry into an enveloping rich, warm, succulent and elegant mouthfeel. The wine is tightly packed and complete, showing tactile finesse and persistence whilst also delivering generosity and enjoyment in its youth.

The flagship from Two Paddocks, the estate Pinot Noir is an organically grown barrel selection produced from the four Central Otago vineyards - The Fusilier in Bannockburn, First Paddock in Gibbston, Last Chance and Red Bank in Alexandra. These small sites are high-density planted in a range of clonal material, cropped to under 5 tonne per hectare with most vineyard practices carried out by hand. An exemplary Central Otago style, which will be enhanced with bottle age.

Harvest started on the 26th March at The Fusilier, Bannockburn and finished on the 17th April at The First Paddock, Gibbston. Two Paddocks’ Viticulturist, Mike Wing, celebrated his 20th vintage this year and described this significant season as “A game of two halves”. The first half was characterised by the coldest Spring in five years and hence there was a lot of frost fighting with overhead water, which in turn stimulated weed growth. The finale was a hail event in Alexandra in January that affected some of the vineyards and so the early part of the growing season is aptly described as challenging. February and March then delivered warm settled weather and ripening progressed well. There was no Autumnal frost fighting and overall the 2024 crop was clean, ripe and at optimum quantity levels.

Hand harvested, sorted in the vineyard, 50% de-stemmed and given 5-7 days pre-fermentation cold maceration. After an indigenous ferment the wine is given another 5-7 days post ferment time on skins. Wine is then transferred to 1-4 year old French medium toast barriques (18% new oak) for an 11 month maturation in predominantly older oak, before racking and bottling.