Mahi Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019

Mahi Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019French oak Dark cherries Plum Soft tannins "Complex, varietal, spicy, fruity, immediately engages the senses and invites investigation. Aromas of wild red flowers, clove and baking spices of oak, dark cherries and plums, mineral and oak. Delicious on the palate with complex layers of fruits and baked nut, dried herb, a savoury mineral core and toasty spicy oak layers. Theres lots of energy and flavour, great mouthfeel from ripe, firm tannins and

• French oak
• Dark cherries
• Plum
• Soft tannins

"Complex, varietal, spicy, fruity, immediately engages the senses and invites investigation. Aromas of wild red flowers, clove and baking spices of oak, dark cherries and plums, mineral and oak. Delicious on the palate with complex layers of fruits and baked nut, dried herb, a savoury mineral core and toasty spicy oak layers. There’s lots of energy and flavour, great mouthfeel from ripe, firm tannins and medium+ acidity. Well made and ready to enjoy from today and through 2027+" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Oct 2020

"A lifted, perfumed bouquet with complex, sulphide characters. Aromas of wild berries, tamarillo, salami, spice, and coffee all add to the intrigue. Quite elegant, and suave with plush fruit, appealing mid-palate richness, plenty of flavour complexity, moderately soft tannins, and a fine finish. A wine with plenty of consumer appeal" NZ Wine Rater, Sep 2021

A full and rich bouquet, this wine is mouthfilling, ripe and supple with good complexity. Dark cherries and plums combine with soft tannins to give a well rounded finish.

Mahi, meaning ‘our work, our craft’, began in 2001, fulfilling a dream of theirs. After 15 vintages it was time to do otheir own thing. With a strong focus on single-vineyard wines, and now backed up by a series of premium regional wines from Marlborough, the idea behind Mahi is to respect and promote the individuality of the various vineyards. The Mahi symbol represents the strength, life and growth of the native New Zealand frond (fern), with the understanding that wine should never be rushed to bottle, respecting its ability to evolve naturally over time.

The 2019 vintage proved to be their earliest finish ever, which also fits in with their earliest start by five days, starting on March 7th. Strangely enough, although it was otheir earliest vintage it was definitely not their warmest. They believe, however, that they will remember this harvest as one of their best, with excellent fruit quality and ideal weather conditions. This vintage can be defined by a number of characteristics, starting with lower rainfall. From Christmas Day until the end of harvest and overall they received only 75% of their normal rain through the entire growing period. They also saw smaller berries, especially in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but also in Sauvignon. Pinot was hit very hard and they were down nearly 50% but also the Sauvignon berries were about 30% smaller than last year. With no rain there was hardly any Botrytis inoculum around and the fruit was the cleanest we have seen in a number of years. This was also helped by the warmer days, especially since the start of January where the deviation from average growing degree days really kicked in.

This wine comes from three vineyards throughout Marlborough, all lending different characters to the wine. The Twin Valleys portion from the cooler Fareham Road area gives us the palate structure that we require; offering finesse to the back-palate. Fruit from the southern valleys gave mid-palate texture and the portion from Ward, approximately 45 kilometres south of Blenheim, providing great depth to the palate, with rich black fruit characters. In the winery the grapes were predominantly destemmed before going to small vats for cold soaking prior to fermentation, allowing the extraction of soft tannins and colour at the juice stage rather than in the harsher alcoholic stage during and after fermentation. About 30% were fermented with stems or whole-bunch solely with indigenous yeasts offering a wide variety of flavours and helping us to attain better texture. During fermentation the skins and juice were hand-plunged on average three times per day. When finished the wine was taken straight to French barriques where it sat for 10 months. The wine was then gently racked, blended, and lightly fined with organic egg whites before bottling.