Foundation Wine

2005 Two Paddocks Pinot Noir

A classic Central Otago Pinot Noir. This is a very rare (only 700 cases produced), handmade, cool-climate Pinot. 2005 yielded tiny amounts from our three vineyards, so this vintage is a departure from our norm and we have blended the best wine from Gibbston (First Paddock), Earnscleugh (Redbank), and Alexandra (Last Chance). The aromatics include redcurrant, blackberry and spice, and as always it shows vivid sensuous dark fruit, a good mid palate depth with trade mark finesse, elegance and depth.

Vintage Comments:

A promising start to the season was hampered by an extremely cold  period in late spring and early summer which affected flowering and fruit set. Yields were down up to 60% in some areas of the vineyard. Summer was characterised by a short sharp set of warm, if indeed hot weather in early February, but was followed by a cooler than expected autumn and difficult ripening. Early frosts in April contributed to our woes. Harvest commenced on April 18 and continued intermittently until May 12.

Winemaking

The grapes were pressed and fermented separately according to clonal variety in stainless steel open top fermenter’s using indigenous yeasts. The must was cold soaked for up to ten days and during fermentation the must was plunged up to four times daily and was followed with a 7 - 10 day post maceration period. The wine spent an average of 24 days on its skins to extract tannin, colour and aromatics before being gently drained and pressed into small French barrels (225lt). Approximately 30% were new air-dried oak barrels.

The wines rested and matured for 11 months before blending, minimal fining and filtration before bottling.

Viticulturalist: Richard Flatman

Winemaker: Dean Shaw

Available: March 2007

Drink:  2007 - 2011

Flower: Waterlillies — "Our pond takes on a gracefulness all of its own in summer."

Reviews:

Pinot noir ruby, older than some '05s. Alongside the Cloudy Bay, bouquet on the Two Paddocks is slightly more complex and French in style, but less floral. Palate is no richer, but it is a little riper in its tannins, which coupled with brett at an absolute threshold level, gives it lovely savoury depth. This will be great with food, and will mature gracefully in cellar for 5 – 8 years -- Geoff Kelly Wine Reviews

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In '05 Two Paddocks has produced this stylish wine, a blend from Last Chance at Alexandra, Redbank at Earnscleugh and First Paddock at Gibbston.
The result is a powerful yet charming, stylish wine with an exciting edge. There is all the cherry and cherryplum fruit you expect from Central, backed with lots of spicy toasty oak with suggestions of coffee and chocolate, and a long crisp finish. -- Charmian Smith, Otago Daily Times - June 13, 2007

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The excellent 2005 vintage (4 stars) is from a very low yielding season in which the fruit from the company's vineyards at Gibbston, Earnscleugh and Alexandra was blended into this regional red. Fermented with indigionous yeasts and fermented for ten months in French oak barriques (25% new), it is a stylish wine, deeply coloured and youthful,  with concentrated cherry and spice flavours showing good complexity, and moderately firm tannins. -- Michael Cooper, Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines 2007

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Top Twelve NZ Pinot Noir -- 88 points / 4 stars
A blend of grapes from not two but three paddocks in three distinctly different areas of Central Otago: Gibbston, Earnscleugh and Alexandra. This is an unusual wine that's deceptively delicate but demonstrates considerable power with an extraordinarily long finish. Quite complex with an array of red and black fruit together with Central Otago's hallmark wild thyme character. Production is small 700 cases. -- Bob Campbell, Gourmet Traveller Wine, June / July 2007