Bottling -- 2000 Neill Pinot Noir

Today, at Central Otago Wine Company, we bottled the 2000 Two Paddocks Neill Pinot Noir. We were tempted to call it the Millennium Edition, but of course since we are famous for our lack of pretension, this was out of the question.

The flower depicted this year is the yellow Gorse flower. On the back label, in small lettering, there is a dedication to Priscilla Neill who died in the spring of the year this wine began (November of 1999). This was accompanied by many other natural phenomena of a calamitous nature in New Zealand - cold, floods, etc. This, in part, accounts for the very very low output for 2000; only 150 cases.

The choice of the Gorse flower is in keeping with our modest flower policy but applies, in this case particularly, to P. Neill who always enjoyed the hills when the Gorse was in bloom. Of course, she understood that gorse was a curse for the farmer, but she thought that it was beautiful anyway. This was a little part of her great enthusiasm for life and the landscape.

Last year's flower on the about to be released 1999 Two Paddocks Neill Pinot Noir is the common Briar Rose which again is a menace for the farmer, but has its own beauty at the right time of the year. And we are always mindful of the rosehip which saved all those little pommy kiddies from scurvy in the war (MAFN).

We are thrilled with the 2000 vintage. It has spent 18 months in the barrel and is all things seductive and gorgeous. We expect to release this wine in March of next year perhaps.