Neill Pinot Noir - 2001

About the wine

Foundation Wine

"New Zealand Flax. 'Karadi' stick fights as kids -- lessons for life."

Tasting Notes

The wine has an intense sweet black cherry, violet, thyme and chargrilled pepper on the nose. The palate has a rich warm and rounded feel, with blackberry, thyme, peppery mineral and earthy flavours. Finely textured, it has an elegant and seductive finish.

Vintage and Harvest Notes

The season began with a very early spring budburst. (Alex Paddock around the 17th of September and One Paddock Gibbston around the 2nd of October). This was followed by a cool period during fruit set, which had a greater influence on the Gibbston fruitset. A much higher than average rainfall through the early summer period took a turn for the better in mid-January with a welcome resumption of our traditional hot, dry summer. The season finished perfectly, with an Indian Autumn the likes of which we haven't seen for many years.

Picking:

Alex Paddock: 15-17 April Gibbston Paddock: 30 April - May 10

Winemaking:

We blended our first crop of Pinot Noir grapes from Alex Paddocks with Gibbston grapes to bring elegance and finesse to this Gibbston Pinot. The fruit was selectively hand-picked combining 20% of grapes from Alex Paddock with 80% from Gibbston. Using all natural yeast, Winemaker Dean Shaw allowed the grapes to ferment for 23 to 30 days, hand-plunging the cap three times daily. Peak fermentation temperature reached 33° C. The wine spent 10 months in French oak barrels, 20% of which were new, to allow the flavours and aromas to come into balance with the tannins and bring notes of toast, spice and lightly charred aromas to the wine. After barrel aging, the wine was bottled without fining, using light to medium filtration.

Vineyard: Stephen and Jim Moffitt. Winemaker: Dean Shaw.

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