Pinot Noir Block 3 2012

Felton Road, tasting note (feltonroad.com – produktside feltonroad.com, hentet 2026-10-19): 2012 Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 3 – område: Bannockburn (Central Otago); drue: Pinot Noir. Enkeltmark ifølge arket: The Elms Block 3 (The Elms vineyard). Producentens noter (engelsk): Tasting note: Every characteristic of this wine is pure Block 3; the crushed herbs are there, dancing with eastern spices and leather; the haunting raspberry purity of the front palate; the way the wine swells in the mouth; then the chocolate finish kicks in and simply refuses to leave. Precision reigns supreme throughout, allowing each phase to be explored and enjoyed. Vineyard & viticulture: Felton Road farms three properties totaling 32 ha in the Bannockburn sub-region of Central Otago. This wine is taken from Block 3 of Elms vineyard where a deep bench of glacial soil is interspersed with calcarious seams. Meticulous summer management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity. Shoot thinning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning and harvest are all carried out by hand to ensure optimum quality fruit. Cover crops are planted between rows to assist in vine balance and to improve soil health and general biodiversity. The spring started with warm temperatures and dry soils which encouraged even and strong early season growth. However, cooler and wetter weather set in for the remainder of spring. Flowering occurred in early December amongst hot and sunny conditions and was therefore fast and successful. The later part of the summer was punctuated by almost weekly cool southerly weather systems which moderated ripening and were somewhat welcomed after such a hot midsummer period. Rain associated with some of these weather events meant vine mid-rows were green, vine canopies were healthy, but without excessive vigour, and little requirement for supplemental irrigation. The weather over harvest was warm and stable with a very orderly flow of fruit to the winery. Vinification: The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping with approximately 25% as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately long maceration on skins has extracted good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This wine was aged for 13 months in French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In accordance with our non-interventionalist approach to winemaking, this wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and was not fined or filtered.