2022 Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir 750ml

AROMA A classic Felton Road nose of dark blossoms: rose and violet with a compote of dark fruits.

PALATE The mid-palate is just screaming Felton Road. Black cherries and cream on the nose introduced cherry crumble on the palate with baked spices. Very harmonious for a wine so young, but a brooding undertow reveals the intrinsic power of the wine. Four Bannockburn vineyards seamlessly integrate to provide many layers and textures.

VINIFICATION

The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping, retaining 20% as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with moderately long maceration on skins has extracted good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This wine was aged for 13 months in 25% new French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In accordance with our non- interventionalist approach to winemaking, this wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and malolactic, and was not fined or filtered.

VINTAGE NOTES

After a moderate winter with normal rainfall, budburst occurred in late September. Flowering occurred in early December with some rain and temperatures hovering around average. A period of cool evenings raised concerns of a potential poor set. Significant rainfall at the beginning of January and further rain in the middle of the month resulted in more than double the monthly rainfall. This wetter period throughout the phase of cell division resulted in generally larger berries and made-up for potentially lower bunch weights from the uneven flowering conditions. The weather stabilised in February with warmer and much drier conditions; which continued throughout the lead-up, and until the conclusion of harvest.