Two Paddocks Pinot Noir - 2013

A good start to the season with healthy well balanced canes being laid on all three vineyard blocks with appropriate bud numbers, but growing then got off to a slow start with cooler than normal temperatures in late spring. The resulting bunches from the cooler spring were of average size but made up of very small berries, which regardless of clone and rootstock ripened at much the same time after a very warm and dry autumn. March was the warmest March we have on record. Additionally there was not the normal large diurnal shift this autumn tending much more to range between 5 degrees over night to 25 degrees during the day. This seemed to be the catalyst for lovely even ripening and carried on until harvest in mid April – early May.

Hand harvested, 75% de-stemmed and given 5-7 pre-fermentation cold maceration. After an indigenous ferment the wine is given another 5-7 days post ferment time on skins. Wine is then transferred to 1-4 (25% new oak) year old French medium toast barriques for a 10 month maturation, before racking and bottling.