Description
Region: Bendigo Hills, Central Otago, New Zealand
Winemaking: The 3 clones (115, Abel and 777) were hand harvested, hand sorted and then destemmed. The fruit was co-fermented using the indigenous yeast and left on skins for 17 days post ferment. The free run wine was then transferred to French Oak barriques (33% new) where it underwent indigenous MLF in spring and matured for 20 months in total. The wine was then racked off its lees, lightly fined with organic egg whites and bottled without filtration.
Tasting Notes: The nose shows deep dark fruit aromas, with notes of wild thyme, violets, and liquorice. The palate has great fruit density and a line of acidity that provides structure and balance. Chalky tannins frame great concentration of fruit and a fantastic long finish. This wine shows excellent ageing potential of 10+ years.
Technical: Alcohol -13.5%. TA - 5.3g/I. pH - 3.54g/l. RS - Dry. Contains sulphites. BioGro certified organic.
Winemaker: Allan McWilliams.
Accolades:
“Come all ye wine collectors. The same wine can be purchased with any of four different labels created by artist John Reynolds. That’s a first in my experience. It is packaged in a bottle that weighs over one kilo and has a wax capsule. This is serious pinot noir that lives up to its fancy packaging. Made from grapes selected in the mid-slope of their Bendigo vineyard. It’s a dense, ripe wine with plum, dark cherry, fresh herb, wood-smoke and spicy oak flavours. While it can be enjoyed now it will reward those who can keep it for a few years.” – Bob Campbell MW, 96/100 points
“A magnificent offering; the immensely complex bouquet shows dark plum, sweet cherry, truffle, warm spice, smoked game, and toasted nut aromas. It’s impressively concentrated and deeply rich on the palate, exhibiting outstanding depth and velvety texture, superbly framed by loads of fine tannins. Symphonic and engaging with a graceful future ahead. Certified organic. At its best: now to 2030.” – Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, 97/100 points
“From their Bendigo vineyards these chosen rows and rare bottling has distinctive, ripe, and concentrated aromas of dried raspberry, dark plum and ripe dark cherry flesh. There’s power in the bouquet with aromas of dark spices and baked stone scents. Dark spices of oak with sweet vanilla and a whisper of bacon. On the palate – equally complex and layered with fruit flavours that reflect the nose. There’s soft quiet seam of dried herb before the oak and soil flavours return. An abundance of tannins with a mix of chalk and fine iron sand textures. Plenty of acidity. A focused, precise, and well-made example. Best drinking from today and through 2030.” – Cameron Douglas MS, 95/100 points
“WINE OF THE WEEK. ‘They say the greatest wines come from the middle of the slope’, note the producers of this lovely Bendigo red. Seductively perfumed, it is deeply coloured and mouthfilling, with highly concentrated, plummy, spicy, nutty flavours, complex, rich, savoury and smooth. Already delicious, it’s well worth cellaring to 2023+. Certified organic.” – Michael Cooper, 5/5 stars