Pair our Mt. Beautiful Pinot Noir with crispy duck, wild pork, water cress sandwiches, spring lamb or a romantic mood.

2017 was an interesting vintage for Pinot Noir. A very hot start to the season led to great shoot growth and bunch2017 was an interesting vintage for Pinot Noir. A very hot start to the season led to great shoot growth and bunchformation. Towards the end of the season the weather cooled significantly, and we experienced rain events attricky times. This led to a slower ripening period, which was great for acid retention, but touchy for sugar levels.Picking started on the 31st of March and finished on the 18th of April; nine days later then 2016. The fruit was100% handpicked, bunch sorted and destemmed. The Pinot Noir then went through a cold soak for five days, thena fast and hot fermentation followed by an extended period of post ferment maceration. A combination of verygentle pumping over and plunging was used. All our Pinot Noir blocks were fermented separately in varying sizedvessels which helped preserve each block’s individuality and unique character. The hot fermentation and gentlehandling give us the soft subtle tannins in this wine. Once the tannins have integrated to our liking, the skins aregently pressed, keeping the free run and pressings separate. Our 2017 Mt. Beautiful Pinot Noir was barrel aged for 10months in a combination of 20% new and used French oak barrels. Malolactic fermentation occurred in barrel beforebeing racked and lightly fined with egg whites. The wine was then bottled on the 16th of March 2018.

Our Pinot Noir is planted on the Southern section of our vineyard, which has the highest elevation, providing extra warmth and less exposure to frost. In addition, our vines are closely planted to reduce vigour, resulting in lower crop levels and allowing us to ripen these grapes to achieve a true expression of this variety. We hand tend all our Pinot Noir 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 667 fills out the middle palate, while 777 provides a long finish. The rest of the vines are a mixture of eleven other clones, including UCD 5, UCD 6, 114, 115, Mariafeld, AM10, 4, 5, 943 and Abel. The aim of these selections is to build sound palate structure in the wine, providing a vibrant ruby colored wine with ripe fruit, subtle tannins, great length and persistence of flavo

Alcohol 13.0%
TA 5.8 g/L 
RS 3 g/L 
pH 3.8

94 Points, 4 Stars, Wine Orbit, Sam Kim 
90 Points, Wine Spectator, MaryAnn Worobiec 
95 Points, The Shout, Cameron Douglas MS 
17.5/20 Points, Raymond Chan Wine Reviews