Churton Pinot noir 2019

The 2019 Pinot Noir delivers an impressive wine. Incredibly perfumed with sandal wood and violets, underlined by wild cranberry aromas. On the palate it has complex fruit flavours, a wonderful savoury element, a hint of very delicate Darjeeling tea, very textural and poised with mouth-watering tannins and a fine long finish. A fine delicate pinot noir that really shows off the best of the Churton terroir

Our distinctive hillside vineyard above the Waihopai Valley was planted in 2000 with a European approach, close vine spacing and high density (approx. 5,000/ha). Our certified organic vineyard is farmed biodynamically allowing the ultimate expression of terroir. 2019 was a dream vintage. A warm wet spring led to early flowering with good fruit set. This was then followed by a warm and very dry summer. Very little rain occurred between Christmas and early March. Consequently veraison was early in the Pinot Noir. Our resilient vines coped with the drought really well. We then had a healthy rainfall at the beginning of March that freshened everything up and allowed the grapes to finish ripening perfectly. Harvested started on 10th March with lovely clean well balanced fruit. Most of our blocks were picked at around 22 Brix allowing for wonderfully ripe but balanced wines with sensible alcohol levels.

All parcels are picked separately by hand as they reach ripeness. The grapes are gently destemmed upon arrival at the winery then tipped into open fermenters. The fruit is handled very minimally until natural fermentation occurs through indigenous yeast. This is usually seven to ten days following harvest. During the fermentation itself, the must is plunged gently only twice daily. The wine remained on skins after fermentation for a further two weeks before pressing - total time on skins is typically 28 days, a lunar month. Our 2019 Pinot Noir was aged in seasoned French oak barrels for 16 months and achieved a natural malolactic fermentation in spring. Racked once, our Pinot was bottled in July 2020.