Black Estate Home Waipara Pinot Noir 2018

Black Estate Home Waipara Pinot Noir 2018French oak Wild forest berries Spice notes Silky mouthfeel Fire brick hue. Compelling fresh and complex aromas of wild forest berrys, wild rose petal, and humid earth. Silky mouth coating tannins that gradually melt to reveal rich berry fruits, red current, and spice. The balance gives a clear impression of the soft, fertile and highly mineralised sedimentary clay soils of the Home Vineyard. This is an unfiltered wine with small amounts of sediment.

• French oak
• Wild forest berries
• Spice notes
• Silky mouthfeel

Fire brick hue. Compelling fresh and complex aromas of wild forest berry’s, wild rose petal, and humid earth. Silky mouth coating tannins that gradually melt to reveal rich berry fruits, red current, and spice. The balance gives a clear impression of the soft, fertile and highly mineralised sedimentary clay soils of the Home Vineyard. This is an unfiltered wine with small amounts of sediment. Please allow the bottle to stand and settle before pouring. Decanting will allow maximum expression of aroma and purity of fruit to emerge. Drink now to 2025.

This Black Estate Home Pinot Noir was grown on their Home Vineyard in the Omihi sub-districtof Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. This is a north facing sedimentary clay fan on a gentle hill side slope. The soils are mainly Awapuni clay with calcium carbonate deposits. The un-grafted Pinot Noir vines are predominantly 10-5 clone and were planted in 1994 at a vine density of 1841 vines per hectare. The new planting completed in 2011 has 2.0ha planted at 6177 vine/ha. Organic and biodynamic farming practices have been used since 2010. Home Vineyard became fully certified organic with BioGro in March 2017.

A hot humid summer resulted in the vineyard team working tirelessly right up to harvest, removing leaves and some fruit to ensure they could harvest ripe and disease free fruit. Harvest commenced mid-march and was condensed and early in most blocks. Diligent hand harvesting was crucial checking that each bunch was suitable for harvest. Growers in the region were very grateful for warm, dry, and windy conditions from March 25 to April 8 2018 that finished off ripening perfectly. 2018 will be remembered as a vigorous, warm, and humid season that was demanding but produced outstanding fruit.

Hand harvested fruit was 98% de-stemmed without crushing giving an average of 70% whole berry. Inoculated using vineyard derived yeast the wine fermented for 28 days in 0.5 to 2.5 ton open top fermenters. The vats were plunged using hand and foot two times per day during the peak of ferment. Each vat was pressed individually using a basket press. The wines were matured in 228L French Barrels for 12 months, 0% were new. The wine was then racked from barrel, blended and settled in tank for 6 months and then bottled without fining or filtration. Sulphites added. 775 dozen 750ml and 192 doz 375ml bottles, bottled in under screw cap on October 16 2019.