BACKGROUND
This is our first release of a Pinot Noir we have made from the esteemed Clayvin vineyard, and we have labelled it under our SV5096 designation which recognises it’s organic certification and its special status as one of our SV wines. We feel very privileged to be allowed to have some fruit from this very special part of Marlborough’s history. The Clayvin vineyard was first established by the Eaton family in 1991 and was the first significant hillside vineyard in Marlborough. It is now under the careful custodianship of the Giesen family and is fully certified organic with BioGro NZ. This SV5096 release will sit alongside our SV5182 wines from our home block to showcase what we can do with Pinot Noir from these two very special Pinot sites. We feel that this 2016 release showcases the best expression of the Clayvin site and the stellar quality of Pinot Noir from Marlborough in 2016.
VINTAGE
2016 was a text book summer in Marlborough with very even ripening and the resultant wines have great concentration and fleshiness and fine, ripe silky tannins. We started picking slightly earlier than usual and the harvest was very evenly spaced with no wet weather pressure.
WINEMAKING
All fruit for this wine was hand-picked, hand-sorted, then destemmed and individually berry sorted to ensure that only pristine, perfect Pinot berries make it into the fermenters. Gently transferred to small one-tonne open fermenters, hand plunged up to 3 times daily. Cold soak for 6-7 days, 5-7 day ferment, 10-14 days post-ferment maceration. Pressed off on taste then filled to oak after 24 hours. In oak for 11 months, all French oak hogsheads from various different coopers. 50% new, with the balance in older oak.
TASTING
This Pinot Noir exhibits a gorgeous perfumed fragrance of ripe raspberry and floral notes, with more brooding fruit and darker tones revealed underneath. The finely textured, silky tannins combine with vibrant flavours of ripe strawberries and omega plum with fantastic mid palate density. The palate carries onto more savoury and complex flavours and finishes with great line and length of finely grained supple tannin and well integrated oak. Bottled unfined. - Anna & Jason Flowerday
Anna Flowerday hails from McLaren Vale and kicked off her career there amid a thoroughly talented pack of young winemakers in the mid-1990s. She worked for Hardys for seven years all up, culminating in an aromatically formative stint at Leasingham in Clare Valley. It was during her time at Hardys that she met and fell in love with Jason Flowerday, a third-generation viticulturalist from Marlborough. Eventually they struck out together and in 2003 bought Te Whare Ra, home to one of the oldest vineyards in Marlborough, originally planted in 1979. Together they manage the estate with a combination of organic and biodynamic practices and have cemented this region's reputation not only as an impeccable source of aromatic whites but also as a force to be reckoned with for both Pinot Noir and Syrah.