Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Bendigo Pinot Noir 2021

Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Bendigo Pinot Noir 2021Smoky oak Plum & dark cherry Wood spice & florals Richly textured "Tantalisingly floral red rose aromasthe smoky oak dominating slightly at this stagetogether with cassis, dark cherry, and dried herb flavours. Richly textured with a lengthy finish. Should age well" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Aug 2023 Black currant and doris plum fruit, with some savoury notes of iodine, peat smoke and wood spice. A great depth of fruit on the palate

• Smoky oak
• Plum & dark cherry
• Wood spice & florals
• Richly textured

"Tantalisingly floral/red rose aromas—the smoky oak dominating slightly at this stage—together with cassis, dark cherry, and dried herb flavours. Richly textured with a lengthy finish. Should age well" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Aug 2023

Black currant and doris plum fruit, with some savoury notes of iodine, peat smoke and wood spice. A great depth of fruit on the palate - red and black cherry, raspberry and plum. There is a tug of earthy, savoury notes that sits alongside the fruit from the mid palate. A long finish is rounded out with some intriguing spice notes. We expect this wine to evolve with careful cellaring for 10-15 years.

Our Ghost Town wines are an exploration of the unique character of Central Otago sub-regions beyond our home in Bannockburn. Central Otago is dotted with the deserted relics of a mining era bygone. Located in Bendigo, once home to over 2000 Chinese miners during the 1860s and 70s, Ghost Town is planted in mature Pinot Noir. Planted in 2002, Ghost Town is at a high elevation rising from 340m to 382m. It sees slightly warmer temperatures than Bannockburn during the peak of the ripening period, although harvest can be a week or so later than our Bannockburn vineyards due to this elevation.

The 2021 growing season was a return to the enviable, lower stress conditions that Central Otago is famous for. We started with a warm spring, which gave the vines a good start. January was cooler and wetter, which replenished the soils and slowed growth, giving small, intensely flavoured grapes. By the time the beginning of harvest rolled around, we were just ahead of our long term average in terms of rate of ripening, and with fruit in fantastic condition. Yields were thankfully back to average in most areas, with only Bannockburn cropping slightly lower. This has given wines with excellent flavour and structure.

We harvested the Pinot Noir over two picks on the 2nd and the 3rd May; inexcellent condition. There is a plethora of different clones 114, 777, Abel, 667, 115, all planted on the vineyard and also all represented in this wine. Where we were able to, we co-fermented all these clonal lots to enhance early integration. The majority of the fruit was destemmed, with around 5% of the fruit retained as whole clusters to help build structural intensity and help reflect the unique characteristics of the site. The wine underwent a 6 day cold soak and was hand plunged once daily; this was followed by a 8-9 day natural fermentation with temperature peaking at 30°C during which time the ferment was plunged once daily. In total, the wine stayed on skins for 25 days prior to pressing, overnight settling and then went to barrel for 12 months. The wine went through malolacticfermentation in the spring, was racked to tank the following autumn and bottled, filtered but unfined, in July 2022.