2020 Ant Moore A+ Pinot Noir

This classy Pinot Noir has an earthy barnyard bouquet with a touch of spice. A silky smooth but generous inky fruit richness on the palate and a layered texture with fine tannins.

Like their namesake, ant moore wines are free spirited. As a winemaker, Ant is an experimenter, a creative oenologist who sees – and does – things differently. From the introduction of wild ferments to the elimination of fining and barrel aging his Sauvignon Blanc, there is care and consideration in every ant moore wine that is usually reserved for wines well above their price point.

Fruit for this blend was sourced from the Upper Wairau Valley and the Omaka Valley with a small component from the Awatere Valley. Predominantly machine harvested, the fruit was transferred to open top fermenters ranging in size from 5T to 10T. These were held cold for an average of 5 days to extract colour and flavour from the skins. The fruit was then warmed and yeast added to some tanks while spontaneous wild ferment encouraged in others. Once fermenting well, the cooling was opened to hold the temperature to a maximum of 32°C. The cap was plunged up to twice per day during peak fermentation. After 5 to 7 days the  ferments were dry and the wine was drained off skins and the skins pressed with pressings recombined. The wine was left in tank for 48 hours then racked to barrel where it underwent malo-lactic fermentation and matured  for approximately 9 months before blending. The wine was cold stabilised before final crossflow filtration to prepare for bottling.