Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Pinot Noir 2018
Tasting Notes
Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Pinot Noir 2018 is handcrafted in very limited quantities from our Bendigo Vineyard in Central Otago.
Supple, dark, crunchy red berry and cherry notes lead into the palate. Savoury, earthy elements appear mid palate, energetic and lively as it moves. The wine finishes with tension between the fine structural tannins, acidity, dried herbs, and crunchy cherry flavours.
A deliciously decadent match for Ghost Town Pinot Noir is a hearty steak. Smokey succulent flavours in the steak and dark red berry and cherry notes in the wine are the perfect marriage.
CELLARING POTENTIAL
Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Pinot Noir will improve for 10-15 years given optimal cellaring conditions.
Vintage Notes
VINTAGE 2018
One for the record books, and a vintage of two halves. There was exceptional warmth from September through to late January, before cooling off through February and Autumn. With the warm start we got underway early; this warm settled weather continued through flowering and fruit set. The potential crop was well set, yet small as a result of the cool December in 2016. The vineyards really started to dry out through December and January, with irrigation struggling. With the arrival of February, temperatures plummeted to below average and rainfall was well above average. These cool and wetter-than-average conditions persisted right through harvest. Disease pressure remained low, even with the elevated rainfall, through the finish of the season. The cool, late Summer / Autumn period enabled berry ripening through a cooler period providing ripe fresh characters.
WINEMAKING CONSIDERATIONS
We harvested the Pinot Noir over three picks from the 7th to the 19th March; in excellent 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 18% 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 7 day cold soak and was hand plunged once daily; this was followed by a 6-8 day natural fermentation with temperature peaking at 29°C during which time the ferment was plunged once daily. In total, the wine stayed on skins for 20 days prior to pressing, overnight settling and then went to barrel for 12 months. The wine went through malolactic fermentation in the Spring, was racked to tank the following Autumn and bottled, filtered but unfined, in July.
Alc. 14% T/A 5.3 gL-1 pH 3.72 Residual Sugar <1 gL-1
Accolades & Awards
-
