Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Pinot Noir 2022
Tasting Notes
Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Pinot Noir 2022 is handcrafted in very limited quantities from our Bendigo Vineyard in Central Otago.
Smoke, graphite and black cherry on the nose, immediately redolent of Bendigo. A powerful wine, with grip and texture starting early on the palate. There is an amalgam of plum, dark cherry, boysenberry fruit along with new leather and warm schist rock. A full flowing finish with great depth of tannin.
CELLARING POTENTIAL
Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Pinot Noir will evolve with careful cellaring for 10-15 years.
Vintage Notes
VINTAGE 2022
The 2022 season swung the pendulum again for Central Otago. This season was characterised by a very warm summer, punctuated by vital rain events, culminating in a bumper crop that was harvested 1-2 weeks ahead of long term average. The benign, warm flowering conditions in December resulted in excellent fruit set and healthy canopies that galloped through a dry January. They were replenished by rain in February before harvest began in mid-March and was wrapped up by mid-April.
WINEMAKING CONSIDERATIONS
A plethora of different clones contribute to this wine, 5, 114, 777, Abel, 667 and 115, all planted on our Bendigo vineyard. Where we were able to, we co-fermented all these clonal lots to enhance early integration. Most 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 28°C during which time the ferment was plunged once daily. In total, the wine stayed on skins for 28-30 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 September 2022.
Alc. 14.5% T/A 5.4 gL-1 pH 3.67 Residual Sugar 0 gL-1
Accolades & Awards
