Felton Road Pinot Noir Bannockburn 2020

Bramble, autumnal forest after rain and bright berry fruits lead the nose. Sweet fruit on the entry coats the mouth; immediately expansive and alluring. Incredibly balanced and harmonious with the fruit depth defining the immediate pleasure, but without the wine falling victim to being ‘fruit driven’. Silk laden tannins complete the mouthfeel and demonstrate an apparent boundless capacity to develop nuance and complexity. The harmony undoubtedly comes from the calibre of our four primely situated and respectfully farmed Bannockburn vineyards.

Felton Road farms four properties totalling 32 ha in the Bannockburn sub-region of Central Otago. This wine is a blend from our four vineyards; Cornish Point, Calvert, MacMuir and The Elms. Meticulous summer management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity. Shoot thinning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning and harvest are all carried out by hand to ensure optimum quality fruit. Cover crops are planted between rows to assist in vine balance and to improve soil health and general biodiversity.

The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping, retaining 20% as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately long maceration on skins has extracted good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This wine was aged for 13 months in 30% new French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In accordance with our non-interventionalist approach to winemaking, this wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and was not fined or filtered.