Mt. Difficulty Roaring Meg Pinot Noir 2008

The grapes for this wine come from selected premium Central Otago vineyards. The warm dry summer meant we started harvesting in late March. The fruit was all de-stemmed to enhance the natural fruit characters of Central Otago. The grapes stayed in the fermentor on average for a total of 24 days with temperatures peaking at 320C. The wine was plunged or turned over once daily during pre-fermentation and three times daily during fermentation. When the wine tasted in harmony it was pressed off to French oak barrels where it resided on lees for 9 months. It underwent malolactic fermentation during early spring, was racked out of barrel in early summer and was not fined prior to filtration and bottling.

This wine exhibits a lovely mix of red and black berry fruits with further complexity gained from oak spice. The wine has a sweet berry entry which displays these same characters in abundance. Tannins rise gracefully out of the mid-palate to finish the wine. These are balanced by the wine's acidity and fruit, to produce a long fruit driven finish.