2008 Leah Pinot Noir

VINEYARD:The fruit comes from our clay rich hillside Raupo Creek vineyard, the alluvial shingles of our Tatou vineyard and the Home vineyard, which is made up of a variety of Waimakariri type soils of alluvial origin. Ten different parcels were hand-picked between March 25 and April 12.

CLONES: 113, 114, 115, 667, 777, 6, 5 and 10/5

VINIFICATION: The fruit was hand-sorted before being de-stemmed and cooled, after a pre-fermentation soaking period the juice was allowed to warm and fermentation started with wild yeast. During fermentation the caps were hand-plunged daily. The wine was then left to sit on skins for two weeks for post ferment maceration; a total of three and a half weeks was spent in contact with the skins. It was then drained and lightly pressed before being transferred to French barriques, of which approximately twenty five percent were new. The Leah Pinot Noir went through natural malolactic fermentation during eleven months spent maturing in barrel, before it was bottled unfiltered and without fining in March 2009.

The finished wine has an alcohol of 14.0 percent, pH of 3.5, and 6.5g/L titratable acid.

WINEMAKER'S NOTES: The nose exhibits aromas of cherry, mocha, new leather and subtle toast with hints of spice. The palate is tightly focused and concentrated with succulent dark fruits layered over smoky oak, with fine mouth-coating tannins and a persistent finish.

CELLARING POTENTIAL: Drinking well now, but will improve over the next five years.

"This immediately appealing, lower-priced wine is grown at three sites.The 2007 vintage was hand-picked, fermented with indigenous yeasts, matured for 11 months in French oak barriques and bottled without filtering. Boldly coloured, it is bursting with ripe, sweet fruit flavours of cherry and plum. Supple, with a light seasoning of oak and gentle tannins, it shows excellent concentration in a savoury, complex style, offering delicious drinking from now onwards."
Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines, 2009

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