Vintage
A vintage where everything feel into place, goods rains, and no disease pressure, low crops that were very clean, a warm dry build up to picking, of neat, compact bunches. Picking occurred perfectly, 7 days after the birth of my second little girl!
Winemaking
The blend of clones for this wine resulted in 60% 115, and 20% MV6 with 20% 114, which were three separate ferments, allowing room to find that sweet spot at blending. Wild ferments were allowed to take hold and 25% whole bunch used to produce structure and complexity. All ferments spent close to 3 weeks on skins. Then into 30% new French oak, the wine was racked twice over 17 months before going to bottle.
Vineyard
The 2017 Mornington Pinot Noir is off a 20 year old vineyard, with predominately clone 115, and some MV6 and 114. The vineyard is south-east facing and seems to take just a few extra days to ripen than the vineyards close by, which can make all the difference with hot summers. The vines are on a bed of rich red loam over course gravel.