Tasting Notes

The wine exhibits vibrant cherry/plum colour and intense black cherry and forest floor aromas, supported by sweet, toasty French oak.  Spontaneous fermentation has contributed an aromatic lift to both nose and flavour.  On the palate, generous fruit is balanced by fresh acidity and fine, youthful tannins.  The wine is already quite harmonious, but promises to develop extra dimensions of richness and complexity with several years’ bottle maturation.

Production Notes

Four weeks, 30^th March to 27^th April, separated the first and last picking of our Pinot Noir grapes at Leongatha.   Consequently, a range of flavour characteristics has contributed great complexity to the resulting wines from the 2000 vintage.

Ripe grapes were hand harvested in good condition from three vineyard sites.  The grapes were fully destemmed and partially crushed to small open fermentors, where they underwent 2-4 days’ cold maceration before being warmed for the commencement of fermentation.  Around half of the batches were allowed to start fermentation spontaneously, whilst the others were inoculated with a favoured Burgundy yeast strain.  Fermentation was allowed to progress at elevated temperatures, 30 - 32ºC, with cap plunging three times per day.

All batches were pressed right at the end of primary fermentation, then settled briefly before being racked to French oak barriques, of which 30% were new.  Malolactic fermentation occurred spontaneously in barrel, and the wines were left undisturbed for ten months until racking, blending, fining and bottling in March 2001.