Mahi Marlborough Pinot Noir 2018

Winemaking details
This wine comes from three vineyards throughout Marlborough, all lending different characters to the wine. The Twin Valleys portion from the cooler Fareham Road area gives us the palate structure that we require; offering finesse to the back-palate. Fruit from the Byrne vineyard this year gave some lovely delicacy, though bigger blacker fruit notes than we have seen before. The final portion came from Ward, approximately 45 kilometres south of Blenheim, providing great depth to the palate, with rich black fruit characters.

In the winery the grapes were predominantly destemmed before going to small vats for cold soaking prior to fermentation, allowing the extraction of soft tannins and colour at the juice stage rather than in the harsher alcoholic stage during and after fermentation. The grapes were then fermented solely with indigenous yeasts offering a wide variety of flavours and helping us to attain better texture.

During fermentation the skins and juice were hand-plunged on average three times per day, with the temperatures peaking at about 34 degrees. When finished the wine was taken straight to French barriques where it sat for 13 months. The wine was then gently racked, blended, and lightly fined with organic egg whites before bottling.

James Suckling – “A very bright and attractive pinot that has aromas of nectarines, peaches and light red cherries with a succulent, tangy palate that draws vibrant, pure fruit flavor on a fresh finish.” (92 Pts)