Yealands Estate Pinot Noir Marlborough 2010

Fruit for this wine came from the Seaview vineyard, a carefully selected parcel from a river terrace in the Awatere Valley. Exposed to some of the toughest growing conditions in Marlborough this vineyard experiences high sunshine and wind, cool nights and low rainfall. As a result, the low yielding vines produce a smaller, thicker skinned berry with intense fruit flavours.

The 2010 vintage started slowly with unseasonably cool spring weather through to December, where we experienced a late cool flowering. Over February, March and April we enjoyed the fantastic dry weather patterns Marlborough is renowned for, with warm days and cool nights enhancing the grapes natural flavours. Overall the season produced outstanding wines brimming with varietal flavour, structure and intens

Grapes were picked at optimum ripeness and cold macerated at 6-8°C for around 6 days. After warming the wine, it was inoculated with a selected yeast strain and followed by a fast, hot fermentation, with regular hand plunging to develop elegance, complexity and balance. The wine was then gently pressed off post fermentation into barrel for malolactic fermentation. 30% of the parcel was aged in new French oak barriques, the balance into 2nd and 3rd year French oak. The parcel underwent a light egg white fining, was blended and filtered prior to bottling.

13% ABV