2020 Pyramid Valley Central Otago Pinot Noir

The wine features a vivid crimson colour and enticing aromas of thyme and red cherries. A complex spiciness lurks beneath the surface, exploding with each sip. The wine's smooth, velvety texture and fine tannins envelop crisp red fruits and a refreshing acidity that provides the wine with vitality and a long-lasting finish.

The year 2020 in Central Otago witnessed a typical summer with excellent canopy growth due to a slightly wetter-than-average spring. However, a dry and hot January was followed by a significant rainfall event in February. Fortunately, the cool autumn brought calm, dry weather, reducing the risk of extended hang time and leading to a successful harvest.

This wine comes from two distinct parcels of land. The first is from the Lowburn sub-region, planted in 2000 with a mix of clones and 30% own-rooted vines on a gentle, north-facing slope. The soils here consist of loess over deep silts with pedogenic lime deposits, and the vines are trained using a vertical shoot positioning system at 3,000 vines per hectare. In 2020, this vineyard was in its third year of organic conversion. The second parcel comes from the Bannockburn sub-region, situated between the Bannockburn inlet and the Kawarau River and certified by Biogro.

This wine was hand-picked and fermented with natural vineyard yeasts in open-top fermenters, including 15% whole bunches. After fermentation, it was aged in French oak barrels, 25% of which were new, for 12 months before settling in stainless steel on light lees for an additional 6 months. The wine was bottled without any fining or filtration.