2020 Lawson's Dry Hills Pinot Noir, Marlborough

This wine comes from three fantastic vineyards in Marlborough’s Southern Valleys. The vines were carefully tended to ensure low crops and open canopies. The weather played its part to produce some of the best pinot noir fruit we have seen in many years. Picked over a two-week period in mid-March the bunches were at optimal ripeness, in perfect condition and with lovely flavours and great concentration.

The grapes were gently crushed into small, open top fermenters and held cold for five days. The vats were then inoculated with a specially selected, cultured yeast. During fermentation the wine was hand plunged three times a day to gently extract colour, tannin and flavour from the skins. The resulting wines were left on skins for around seven days post ferment before pressing to predominantly old French Oak barriques (5% new). The wine was blended after ten months maturation in barrel.