FOOD MATCH
Suited well to flavoursome meat such as lamb, duck, boar and venison. Mushrooms, beetroot and eggplant compliment well as vegetarian options.
WINEMAKERS NOTES
The OTQ Series is a pure expression of Jules’ winemaking skills and her vision to create wines which speak of their place.
AROMA & FLAVOUR
This Pinot Noir explodes with Black Doris plums and boysenberry fruit, floral notes of violet and earthy, truffle and liquorice overtones. Spice from the French oak barriques are layered with earthy notes and hints of dark chocolate. This is Pinot Noir on a Harley Davidson! A serious wine that will reward a few years in the cellar. It is ripe, concentrated and full bodied, with impressive flavours and plenty of earthy tannins leading to a long, fine, dry finish. Decant 20 minutes prior for ideal drinking.
VINTAGE NOTES
The growing season began with a roar. A wet winter had left soils saturated, and mild spring temperatures kicked off strong early canopy growth. Flowering was slightly earlier than average with vines in mid flower by late December. A little drizzle during flowering affected pollination and meant bunches were small and open in structure with lots of tiny berries. After the wet winter and adequate rainfall during spring, the last significant rain of summer was on Christmas day when 27mls fell. For the rest of the growing season the warm dry weather was perfect for growing disease-free fruit and meant harvest was going to start early. The dry summer reduced the size of the grapes even further and for Pinot Noir the small berries and lighter crops meant dense, concentrated flavours and intense tannins. Vintage itself was rather compressed with
all fruit harvested in 22 days compared to the 33 days over 2018. This 2019 Pinot Noir will be big and bold, and very much a reflection of the dry, low yielding year.
VINIFICATION
The grapes for this Pinot Noir were grown organically and biodynamically on the Wrekin Vineyard which lies in Marlborough’s Brancott Valley. Positioned on northwestern facing slopes, set in deep clay soils, this charming little vineyard was carefully managed to provide a very low-yielding, highly concentrated crop of a mix of quality Pinot Noir clones: 115, 667, 777, 10/5 and Abel. The intensely flavoured fruit was hand harvested in mid to late March, then de-stemmed into small open top fermenters where it was cold soaked for six days. The wine was then fermented with indigenous yeast. Delicate hand plunging during fermentation avoided over-extraction of tannins and colour. After some time on skins and extended maceration, the wine was pressed into a combination of new and old French barriques where it underwent a full malolactic fermentation. After nine months in barrel, the wine was given a light egg white fining and bottled.