Greywacke Pinor Noir 2017 is a seductive combination of blackberries, blueberries and sweet black plums intermingled with roasted chestnuts, cloves and dark tobacco – rich and exotic with hints of lavender and rose petal.

A highly perfumed, aromatic style of Marlborough pinot with opulent fruit sweetness and a delicate smoky infusion.

The palate is generous with ripe fruit, fine tannins and a delicious spicy finish.

Viticulture:

All fruit was grown in Marlborough’s Southern Valleys and principally sourced from the Yarrum Vineyard, situated on the Brancott/Ben Morven ridge. Typical of this subregion, the wind-blown loess soils are comprised of clay-loams with differing degrees of gravel content.

The various source blocks are cultivated to a mixture of pinot noir clones, predominantly the Dijon clones 115, 777 and 667, with smaller parcels of UCD5 and AM 10/5.

The vineyards are primarily hillside plantings trained to two-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) with a high vine density of 3800 plants per hectare.

Winemaking:

The grapes were hand-harvested and chilled overnight prior to hand sorting.

Most of the fruit was then de-stemmed into open-top fermenters, the majority of which also had a percentage of whole-bunch inclusion.

The fruit was left to soak on skins prior to the onset of indigenous yeast fermentation, then plunged daily.

After fermentation the wine was pressed, racked and filled into French oak barriques (30% new).

Individual clones were aged separately in barrel for 16 months, prior to blending in August.

Technical Details:

Bottled in November 2018

Alcohol: 13.5%
pH: 3.64
Acidity: 5.4 g/l.