Black Estate Home Pinot Noir 2023

13%abv | Waipara, Canterbury

Deep ruby hue. Aromas of raspberry, liquorice, tilled earth, and thyme . The palate has density and structure typical of Pinot Noirs from the Home vineyard with a silky texture and delicate acidity. Emerging flavours of plum, raspberry, red cherry and clove. This is an unfiltered wine with small amounts of sediment. Please allow the bottle to stand and settle before pouring. Decanting will allow maximum expression of aroma and purity of fruit to emerge. Drink now to 2033.

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Vineyard:

This Black Estate Home Pinot Noir was grown on our Home Vineyard located 6 kilometers north east of the Waipara Junction, in the Omihi subdistrict of Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. This is a north facing sedimentary clay fan on a gentle hill side slope. The soils are mainly Awapuni clay with calcium carbonate deposits. The un-grafted Pinot Noir vines are predominantly 10-5 clone and were planted in 1994 at a vine density of 1841 vines per hectare. The new planting completed in 2011 has 2.0ha planted at 6177 vine/ha with 115, 667, 828, 943, Abel, and UCD5 clones. Organic and biodynamic farming practices have been used since 2010. Home Vineyard became fully certified organic with BioGro in March 2017. The Home vineyard was first certified Demeter on March 22 2022.

Season:

Winter and early spring rainfalls meant vines started the growing season in spring with adequate soil moisture. Once soil temperatures rose in mid spring rapid vegetative growth kept vineyard teams busy with shoot thinning, undervine cultivation, and organic spray rounds with short intervals. Weather at flowering was settled but cool with intermittent rain. Fruit set was adequate. Post flowering for the second year running we experienced higher humidity levels than normal which averaged 80% through the normally dry December, January, and February months. Thorough leaf removal around the fruit zone was undertaken through the blocks and spray intervals were tightened up to manage the potentially high disease pressure from powdery mildew. Harvest across our three vineyards harvest was later than the previous 5 vintages pushing into mid-April as we patiently waited for optimal ripeness across the individual blocks. High quality hand harvested fruit with good ripeness and bright acidity was gratefully obtained.

Fermentation:

Hand harvested fruit was 100% de-stemmed without crushing giving an average of 70% whole berry. Inoculated using vineyard derived yeast the wine fermented for 27 days in 2.0 to 2.5 ton open top fermenters. The vats were plunged using hand and foot one to two times per day during the peak of ferment. Each vat was pressed individually using a basket press. The wines were matured in 228L and 500L French Barrels for 9 months. No new oak was used. The wine was then racked from barrel, blended and settled in tank for 4 weeks and then bottled without fining or filtration. 50 ppm Sulphites added.