Neudorf

Once a little sister to the Moutere wine, this label now has a cachet all of its own. Handling in vineyard and winery are the same with both wines (give or take a bit of new oak), the grapes are largely from young vines in the Moutere, and the “young vines” are getting older and more expressive. Hand picked fruit from Neudorf’s vineyards in the Moutere Hills and Brightwater was gently whole bunch pressed, then briefly settled and run to barrel (25% new oak). Primary fermentation occurred spontaneously with indigenous yeasts, promoting flavour complexity and enhancing mouth feel. After completing malolactic fermentation the wine was left on stirred yeast lees until racked for bottling in March 2005 at 3.4 pH, 6.7 g/l TA, 14.0% alc.

"This wine is a pure expression of place. Deeply elegant and refined it is already remarkably integrated and complete. There is a zen-like quality to the wine which speaks quietly and without fanfare but has the ability to leave a trail of taste memories. Great wine. Enough said. Created from old Mendosa vines on the home vineyard, hand picked and gently whole bunch pressed. Prolonged spontaneous feral yeast fermentation in barrel (40% new) promoted complexity and mouth feel and was followed by a full malolactic ferment, with lees stirring. Racked to bottle in late June without filtration or fining at 3.5pH,6.5g/l TA, dry, 14.3% alc.

"Icon Pinot Noir. Grapes were hand harvested from the Home Vineyard, Pomona and Toms Block. This year the older vine Pommard, 10/5 and 22 clones are joined for the first time with some excellent later planted Pommard, Dijon 777 and 667 vines . All fruit was chilled, carefully sorted, destemmed and cold macerated prior to fermentation on the skins in small batch fermenters. Fermentation occurred spontaneously using indigenous yeast reaching temperatures of 32C. The wine had a very long post fermentation maceration with up to 32 days total tank time to extract fine phenolics. The wine matured for eleven months in French Oak barrels (40% new) from a variety of Burgundy coopers to add complexity. Bottled without filtration on 14/7/05 at 3.66pH, 5.5g/l TA, dry, 14.3% alc.