Blue Earth 2020 Pinot Noir
NZD $69.00 inc GST
An elegant, complex, savoury Pinot Noir. Aromas of ripe red berry fruits dominate the nose with hints of spice and floral notes in the background to add complexity. Spice flavours come through on the mid palate along with rich cherry fruit flavours and underlying savoury notes. Velvet soft tannins form the backbone.
With a bit of age on it, our 2020 Pinot Noir is just coming into its own now, but is capable of ageing even further.
Blue Earth Estate Pinot Noir 2020
TASTING NOTES
Aromas of ripe red red berry fruits dominate the nose with hints of spice and floral notes in the background add complexity.
Spice flavours come through on the mid palate along with rich cherry fruit flavours and underlying savoury notes whilst velvet soft tannins form the backbone of this succulent and vibrant Pinot Noir.
This is a superbly balanced, elegant and weighted Pinot capable of ageing for up to ten years.
THE VINEYARD
This family owned and operated vineyard is on an old river terrace at the south end of Te Muna Valley. The stony soils with an underlay of limestone, a gentle north facing slope and exposure to westerly winds produce low volume crops of high intensity.
VINIFICATION
All fruit was carefully hand-picked over two vineyard passes. In the winery we destemmed all fruit and fermented in 3T open top tanks. The wine spent between 18 and 19 days on skins including punching down by hand up to two times a day, before being pressed to French oak barrels. The wine underwent malolactic fermentation in barrel and remained on its lees for ten months before racking, blending and bottling.
Indigenous yeasts are used which add to the wine’s complexity in addition to traditional methods of punching down the ferments by hand.
THE SEASON
2020 will be remembered as a truly unique vintage with the worldwide impact of Covid19 falling right in the middle of our harvest. Fortunately we were allowed to work through lockdown (as an essential industry) and complete what has turned out to be very a high quality vintage.
Spring was generally benign – there were several light frost events, none of which were damaging, and lacked the strong winds we normally get during this time. We then experienced a prolonged dry spell from mid-December right through to late March where we only recoded 38mm of rain. This long extended, dry, warm summer was ideal for ripening and we started picking Pinot on the 5th April. The wines look generous with lovely deep colour, flesh fruit and silky tannins and a brooding weight and richness to them
Information
REGION: Martinborough
OAK MATURATION: 10 Month in French Oak – 11% new
VINEYARD BLOCK: Hanson Vineyard
CLONE: Abel/ 115/ 5/ 114
HARVEST DATE: 5th and 11th April 2020
HARVEST ANALYSIS: 22.5 – 23.3 Brix 3.37 – 3.47 pH 7.30 –7.60 g/L TA
BOTTLING DATE: 23rd March 2021
WINE ANALYSIS: .67 pH 5.60 g/L TA 13.15% Alc RS – Dry