Conservation Coast Pinot Noir

The grapes were handpicked in the early morning on 15th February 2013 into 18kg lug boxes at a Balling of 23.2°. Once picked the grapes were placed in cold storage for overnight cooling at a temperature of 4°C. The following day the grape bunches were hand sorted before being destemmed and then placed on a vibrating sorting table for berry sorting to ensure only the highest quality. Thereafter the tank’s cooling system is switched off, allowing for the grapes to warm up naturally before being inoculated with Lallemand RC212 yeast at 30g/hl. Once begun, fermentation took 14 days to complete before the wine was pressed and left to settle for two days. Thereafter the wine was inoculated with MLF bacteria and moved to barrel for Malo-Lactic fermentation.

The grapes come from seven-year-old PN115 and PN113 clone vines on north facing slopes. The vines experience, on average, 750mm of rain each year with south-easterly winds in the spring and summer and north-westerly winds in the autumn and winter. The soil is composed of a coarse gravel loam of decomposed granite and sedimentary gravel mix which overlays a saprophytic clay of weathered granite, whilst the top soil is a coarse loam with a medium gravel. Along with natural rainfall, the vines are supplemented with under vine micro jet irrigation every second row.

Once complete, the wine is then racked and sulphurated before returning to barrel for a further 9-10 months of maturation before being filtered and bottled.