Ceres Composition Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017

Ceres Composition Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017Magnificently composed and delightfully expressed, showing dark cherry, plum, vanilla, warm spice and olive characters with a touch of floral lift. Some savoury floral perfumes add to the interest. Medium full bodied, the palate has a rich and firm core of sweet fruit with packed, deep and dense flavours of dark red and black cherries and berries intermingling with thyme herbs, some whole bunch stalk perfumes and a hint of reduction. The palate is

Magnificently composed and delightfully expressed, showing dark cherry, plum, vanilla, warm spice and olive characters with a touch of floral lift. Some savoury floral perfumes add to the interest.  Medium-full bodied, the palate has a rich and firm core of sweet fruit with packed, deep and dense flavours of dark-red and black cherries and berries intermingling with thyme herbs, some whole bunch stalk perfumes and a hint of reduction.  The palate is concentrated and beautifully rounded, delivering plush mouthfeel and succulent fruit intensity, leading to a persistent polished finish. At its best: now to 2022.

Ceres Bannockburn Pinot Noir is made up of fruit from 2 vineyards in the sub-region of Bannockburn, totalling 8 ha. The Inlet vineyard is Situated on a river terrace above the Bannockburn Inlet along Cairnmuir Road in Bannockburn.  Planted in 2002. The soils are loess ranging from 200 – 600mm on top off deep clay gravels, around 160,000 years old. On an elevation of 225-245m.  5.25 ha. The Black Rabbit vineyard is Situated on renshaw ridge above the Bannockburn Inlet. 3.46-hectare site with an elevation of 250 –315m.  Ancient geology ranging from 4 - 400 million years old.  The site is a steep North-east facing slope with windblown schist loess over bedrock schist.

2017 was an interesting growing season to say the least. A wet warm spring enabled fantastic early growth with plenty of moisture in the soil to keep the vines happy. A marked changed occurred in December where temperatures dropped, and we entered one of the least memorable summers in recent history. Poor weather in December caused flowering to last up to 3 weeks which drove lower crop levels throughout Central Otago. A longer slower ripening period was thankfully finished off by some warmer periods in March which enabled everything to reach full ripeness.

The fruit was harvested from the 4th - 24th April. The wine is a blend of 60% Inlet Vineyard and 40% Black Rabbit Vineyard. In total the fruit spent 28 days on skins; around 9 days cold soak, 8 days in ferment then 10-11 days post ferment. The wine was pressed to barrel and spent 12 months in barrel prior to a natural malolactic fermentation in the spring. The wine was filtered but not fined prior to bottling in May 2018.