Pair our Mt. Beautiful Pinot Noir with Miles Davis, rare roast beef and horseradish sauce, hard salty cheeses like Pecorino Romano or moussaka on a rainy night.

2018 was a complete contrast to the previous few vintages. The growing season was considerably warmer and 2018 was a complete contrast to the previous few vintages. The growing season was considerably warmer and wetter than normal, and our Pinot Noir did very well. Good flowering followed by enough rain to fill out the grape bunches had us hand harvesting our fruit 10 days earlier than usual, starting the 21st of March. Fruit ripened fast and was picked with excellent sugar levels and good acidity however we had some variability in tannin ripeness. The harvest was 100% destemmed and whole berries were sent to open fermenters. After a cold soak of 5-10 days, a fast fermentation ensued. The wine was gently plunged twice daily and left on skins for a further period. Some cuvees were pressed quickly to retain freshness and fruitiness, whilst others that had better tannin structure were left on skins for an extended period. The wines were all aged in French oak barrels, 20% of which were new, for 11 months where they underwent malolactic fermentation prior to blending and bottling 12 months following harvest.

The Pinot Noir is planted on the Southern section, which has the highest elevation in the vineyard, providing extra warmth and less exposure to frost. In addition to this our Pinot Noir is closely planted to reduce vigour resulting in lower crop levels, allowing us to ripen these grapes to achieve a true expression of this variety. Our Pinot Noir is all hand tended throughout the season and at harvest.

Our mix of Pinot Noir clones were specifically chosen for their flavour profile with 50% of the vineyard planted in Burgundy clones. Clone BDX 667 fills out the middle palate, while BDX 777 provides a long finish. The rest of the vines are a mixture of seven other clones, including UCD 5, UCD 6, 114 and 115. The aim of these selections is to build sound palate structure in the wine, providing a vibrant ruby wine with ripe fruit, subtle tannins, great length and persistence of flavour.

Pinot Noir Vineyard Stats:
Planted 2004-2019
9 blocks, 27.7 ha (68.5 ac)
907 rows, 98,572 vines
Spacing: @2.0 x 1.0 m
Yield: 6 T/ha (2.5 T/ac)

Alcohol 13.5%
TA 5.3 g/L 
pH 3.84
RS 1.0 g/L 

Bottled: March 2019 
Production: 2,880 cases 

90 Points, 4 Stars, JamesSuckling.com, Nick Stock 
93 Points, 5 Stars, Wine Orbit, Sam Kim 
4 Stars, Michael Cooper 
92 Points, Planet Grape Wine Review, Catherine Fallis MS