Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Pinot Noir 2017
Tasting Notes
Mt Difficulty Ghost Town Pinot Noir 2017 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 2017
A very interesting season - overall we ended up with an average amount of heat even though the season had a distinctly cool bend to it. A very warm wet Spring kicked off the growing season in style with very early bud-burst. Just as we were entering into flowering, the weather deteriorated with very cool weather being the norm right through late December. This impacted on flowering with lower than average yields.
WINEMAKING CONSIDERATIONS
We harvested the Pinot Noir over four picks from the 16th to the 21st April; in excellent condition. There is a plethora of different clones 114, 777, 667, Abel, 5, 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 15% 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 8-9 day cold soak and was hand plunged once daily; this was followed by a 5-6 day natural fermentation with temperature peaking at 30°C during which time the ferment was plunged once daily. In total, the wine stayed on skins for 25 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, unfined, in July.
Alc. 14.3% T/A 5 gL-1 pH 3.7 Residual Sugar <1 gL-1
Accolades & Awards
- 96 Points with 5 Stars from Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review 2021
- Gold, New Zealand International Wine Show 2020
- 93 Points, James Suckling, New Zealand Tasting Report 2019
- Excellent, Mark Henderson, Otago Daily Times 2018
