Wairau River Reserve Marlborough Pinot Noir 2023

Description

Chocolate, Oak, Spice

A dark textural wine intended for extending cellaring. Dense fruit concentration with notes of blackberry, dark plum and bramble on the nose. The palate is beautifully structured with rich fruit concentration and fine ripe tannins, supported by subtle oak influences.

Warm settled weather in spring and early summer provided great conditions for flowering and fruit set, resulting in yields more aligned with the long-term average than in previous vintages. The classic dry windy weather which Marlborough normally experiences throughout summer was replaced this year with extended periods of cloud cover and rainfall, causing some initial concern from the viticulture and winemaking teams. However, once ripening commenced the weather settled and remained fine and windy throughout harvest. The increased soil moisture ultimately resulted in excellent canopy development and overall vine health, alleviating any initial disease concerns, and the reduced sunshine hours and cooler daily temperatures helped slow and extend the ripening period resulting in wines of intense concentration and poise. Harvesting progressed smoothly with the favourable weather conditions allowing the winemakers to hang the bunches out on the vine to achieve optimum ripeness, with picking commencing in the third week of March and completed before the end of April.

Sourced exclusively from our Home Block vineyard, select bunches were carefully hand harvested in the cool of the morning and returned to the winery in small bins. Spontaneous fermentation in open top French oak cuves with a portion of whole clusters, and only delicate hand plunging once daily to extract colour and subtle tannins. Basket pressing and ageing in French oak barriques for 15 months, prior to final blending and bottling without fining or filtration.