Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir 2025

Vineyard & Viticulture
Felton Road farms four properties totalling 34 ha in the
Bannockburn subregion of Central Otago. Block 3 is
situated on a gentle north facing slope in the heart of The
Elms vineyard where a deep bench of silt soil is
interspersed with calcareous seams. Meticulous summer
management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP)
canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity. Shoot
thinning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning
and harvest are all carried out by hand to ensure optimum
quality fruit. Cover crops are planted between rows to assist
in vine balance and to improve soil health and general
biodiversity.
Vintage
Abundant rain in September and October replenished
soil-water reserves. After a later than average
budbreak, the vines grew well until a katabatic frost,
the most extensive in twenty years, struck the
vineyards on 3 November. Fortunately, losses were
localised within vineyards and occurred early enough
in the season for many vines to recover. A benign,
settled period coincided with flowering and a
successful fruit set did much to compensate for the
damage from the frost. Summer saw even
temperatures and a protracted dry period, which
served to slow down ripening and concentrate
flavours. After February finished with a warm flourish,
the weather cooled distinctly, especially at night. The
three components of Block 3 were harvested from 3
to 13 April. The slow and measured conclusion of
ripening has endowed the wines with an impressive
breadth, harmony and finesse.
Vinification
The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to
be gently destemmed directly into open-top
fermenters without pumping, retaining 25% as whole
clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately
long maceration on skins has extracted good colour
and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This
wine was aged for 13 months in 28% new French
oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In
accordance with our non-interventionalist approach
to winemaking, this wine was fermented with
indigenous yeast and was not fined or filtered.

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