Wild Earth Vineyards Pinot Noir 2009
Wine Maker: Steve Davies Viticulturist: Pip Feyen
Vineyard Notes: The 2009 Growing season was an exceptional one in Central Otago, with perfect conditions for a small crop. Budburst occurred late October. The early season weather conditions were cold and frosty through November and December but dry. The conditions resulted in the vines cropping low but with a successful flowering, producing small uniform and disease free bunches. January and February the weather remained cool with below average temperatures. The benign conditions meant little irrigation was needed resulting in smaller than normal berries. Conditions remained cooler allowing extended hang time, perfect for the small crop. Grapes from this wine are mainly from Bannockburn with a small percentage from our Lowborn vineyard.
Winemaking considerations: Ripe fruit was hand harvested from the vineyards throughout April. The fruit was harvested in 5 ton lots, so several separate fermentations were undertaken for this blend from different clones.90% of the he fruit was de-stemmed, pressed and fermented slowly in open top stainless steel tanks. The other 10% was left as whole bunch and fermented the same. The must was left for 5 days on cold soak and lightly pumped over once a day to keep the cap moist but to keep the whole berries intact. The fermenters were warmed and inoculated with yeast to ferment the wines till dry. The wines were then plunged two times a day through the whole ferment. The fermenters peaked at 32 Celsius.
Post maceration took place for up to 7 days post ferment, with the ferments tasted daily once dry until tannins were homogenized. The wines spent an average of 3 to 4 weeks on the skins to extract optimum colour, tannin and aromatics. The wines were then gently drained, pressed and then tank settled for three days, then racked to French oak barriques, of which 30%were new oak barrels. The wines were kept cool and humid in the barrel hall until spring, and topped frequently during this time. The room was then warmed and the barrels underwent malo-lactic fermentation in December. The wines were then racked out of barrel and blended in tank in March.
This wine settled in tank through the fall and went through cross flow filtration in July. It was bottled in October.
Analysis:
Alcohol: 14%
Titratable Acidity: 5.66g/L
pH: 3.62
Aromatic and Palate: Deep red colour with purple-red hues. On the nose you get red and dark cherry, black liquorice, musky oak and a hint of mushroom. The palate is full with ripe black cherry, plum, orange peel, cassis and mushroom with mouth caressing tannins and a lingering finish that won’t quit.
