Amisfield Pinot Noir 2004
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Amisfield's overriding winemaking philosophy revolves around the fact that quality wine is grown not made. Clean ripe fruit is hand picked and destemmed into open topped fermenters. After a week or so pre-ferment soaking of wild yeasts in the winery begin fermentation. Once dry, the skins are gently pressed and run off to tight grained French Oak barrels and matured in underground cellars.
The style is classic Central Otago Pinot, dark cherry and spice aromas lead to a richly fruited palate with fine silky tannins. Drinking well on release and can be cellarred for up to 5 years from vintage.
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Amisfield was established in 1988 and is a Central Otago based specialist producer of Pinot Noir and aromatic white wines, sourced from fruit grown on their Single Vineyard Estate, situated beneath the glacially sculptured Pisa mountain range.
Vineyards are managed holistically through organic practices focused around nurturing Amisfield’s unique soils, vines and habitats - this combined with a rugged inland location and an extreme semi-continental climate, yields wines of remarkable purity, intensity and vibrancy.
A state-of-the-art purpose built winery is the focal point of the vineyard and is designed to enable winemakers to craft wines with minimal intervention and as naturally as possible.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Home to the globe’s most southerly vineyards, which are cultivated below the 45th parallel, Central Otago is a true one-of-a-kind wine growing region, but not only because of its extreme location.
Central Otago is more dependent on one single variety than any other region in New Zealand—and it isn’t Sauvignon blanc. They don’t even make Sauvignon blanc there.
Pinot Noir claims nearly 75% of the region’s vineyards with Pinot Gris coming in a far second place and Riesling behind it. This is also New Zealand’s only wine region with a continental climate, giving it more diurnal and seasonal temperature shifts than any other.
The subregion of Bannockburn has enjoyed the most success historically but the area’s exceptional growth has moved to the promising regions of Cromwell/Bendigo and Alexandra districts. Central Otago is known for its fruity and full-bodied Pinot noir. With the freedom to experiment here, growers and winemakers are easily exhibiting the area’s great potential.