Region: Central Otago Grapes: Pinot Noir First Glance: Deep, Concentrated, Herbal, Powerful
The Wine: The unique gravity flow winery enables the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping, retaining 25% as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately long maceration on skins extracts good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. The wine was aged for 13 months in 25% new French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers.
Sometimes it can be hard to find a word to match what seems so clear to the senses. The nose is dark, as is the colour, beguiling, but restrained. There is a stature to the palate here; a sort of authority to the way it stands back and allows you to explore its detail. A definite sprig of herbs, chocolate notes, but still so transparent that every nuance is revealed. It seems extraordinary that this is just the second time we’ve made MacMuir as a single vineyard release: it’s Felton Road, to be sure, but in a different dimension.
