Tasting Notes for Rock Ferry Trig Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2014 from the Winery

This is quite a powerful Pinot, it has aromas of crushed violets and baked plums with an earthy edge. The fleshy palate has a subtle linear acidity and ripe pepperiness. Layers of complexity evolve in the mouth and the wine tails off nicely, with a lovely long finish.

Viticulture

Our aim in the vineyard is to grow the best fruit we can so it can speak of its home and express its personality. To do this you need healthy vines and soil. By practicing organics and incorporating some biodynamic principles we believe we are doing our best to help achieve this and let our vineyards evolve and speak as they would like.
Winemaking: The Holy Grail? Maybe, what is exciting about Pinot Noir are the big steps this country is making with this variety. Our Pinot Noir comes from Bendigo, one of the warmest sub regions in Central Otago. Our vineyard is also one of the highest — at 400m above sea level. The vineyard is planted on North/West facing ridges. This is an area of high light and sun exposure due to its aspect. The soils are a mixture of glacial fans — clays and loess over schist rocks on the high ridge and thin loess layers over river gravels on the lower slopes. We are aiming for layers of texture and fine ripe velvet tannins and restrained power. Everyyear we are learning more about the personality traits of this vineyard, the view is spectacular, and we like what we see coming from this special place.
The fruit was hand harvested from the upper slopes of the vineyard, with an elevation between 380 and 420 metres. The aspect is North, North West. Three quarters of the fruit was de stemmed into French oak cuves and the rest was added as whole bunch. The cuves were naturally fermented with gentle hand plunging. Post ferment maceration was 10 days. It was then racked off into a mixture of seasoned and new (30%) French oak, and a mixture of puncheons and barriques, where it underwent malolatic fermentation and was left to mature for 18 months. It was then racked off lees and bottled, without filtering orfining.  Clones: 70% 115,25% Abel, 777

Technical Details

Alc: 14.0 %

TA:5.5g/I TA

pH:3.6

Winemaker: Allan McWilliams

Vineyard: Trig Hill

Region: Bendigo, Central Otago

(SKU: RF_PN_CV)