Bress Silver Chook Pinot Noir (2018)

750mL / Yarra Valley and Macedon, VIC / Australia

Category: Wine
Sub-Category: Red wine

Colour:

Youthful, vibrant and mid garnet

Aroma:

The wine offers a complex array of fruit aromas of plum, dark red fruits and forest floor. The oak aromas are of char and spice

Palate:

This Pinot Noir has fruit flavours of dark red fruits and forest floor.

The oak characters are integrated into the wine and add a savoury richness.

Ageing:

Whilst enjoyable now, this wine will reward careful cellaring for up to 6 years.

The regions:

The Yarra Valley is a warmer grape growing region than both Faraday and Macedon and produces fruit that is more robust in flavour and structure.

The cooler climate of Macedon produces fruit that is more elegant, fragrant and lightly weighted.

Faraday is a cross between these two regions yet has a densely not expressed in either the Yarra or Macedon.

The Vineyards:

This Pinot Noir was grown in the appellations of Macedon 58%, the Yarra Valley 22% and a 35 year old vineyard situated at Faraday, 6 kilometres from Bress 20%.

The Yarra vineyard is located in what is referred to as the Diamond Valley appellation, situated at Panton Hill.

The vineyards is planted to the MV6 clone which is much prized by Bress for its ability to produce full flavoured fruit across a range of viticultural sites including the Faraday vineyard.

The Macedon vineyard, Chanter's Ridge is planted to D5V12 clone, producing a very fragrant, light to medium weighted Pinot Noir.

All the vineyards are trellised to the vertical shoot positioned system.

Winemaking:

Bress' winemaking belief is that good fruit should be treated gently and with minimal intervention.

The Bress 2017 Silver Pinot Noir was treated in this manner.

The Silver Style is invariably whole bunch dominant at an average of 60%

A combination of whole bunch and gently crushed fruit fermentations occurred in open fermenters.

Fermentation was slow and was conducted by indigenous yeast strains.

Pumping over and hand plunging occurred three times a day.

Post pressing, the wine was transferred to French oak hogsheads for malolactic fermentation and subsequent oak maturation for 9 months.

Prior to bottling the wine was transferred to tank and allowed to settle then gently filtered prior to bottling.