Huia Pinot Noir 2020

On the nose the wine shows spice, violets, cacao, cedar, dark cherry. The palate is full with dark red plum, dark cherry alongside hints of five spice, wild thyme and savoury notes. The French oak imparts a gentle vanilla pod flavor and the silky grape tannins are well integrated. The wine has great balance, length and structure and will age well.

The 2020 Pinot Noir is sourced from our three Pinot Noir Vineyards. Our home vineyard was planted in 1995, and is grown on river run shingle to very stony alluvial silts in the Rapaura sub region. The Andahlane vineyard on the West Coast Road region are terraces of stone, clay, and silt.

The Andahlane vineyards has Pommard Clone 5 planted in 1993 giving great structure to the wine. The third vineyard is in the Brancott Valley with Pommard Clone 6, Pommard Clone 5, 10 and Dijon 777. The grapes from this Brancott vineyard provide rich brooding dark fruit with loads of concentration to add to the whole blend

A sunny and warm growing season ripened the grapes and these were hand picked on the 13h of March to the 20th March. The grapes were destemmed and crushed into tank for soaking in their juice before ferment. Wild yeasts initiated ferment and after five days we inoculated for fermentation. Once racked and pressed off the grape skins, the wine matures in French oak for twelve months, is then racked off lees and matured for another eleven months in a large neutral oak vat, before being bottled after two years.