TWO PADDOCKS PINOT NOIR 2020 12.5%

The flagship from Two Paddocks – an organically grown barrel selection from the estate properties. In 2016 this wine was produced from the four Neill family Central Otago vineyards. These small sites are high-density planted in a range of clonal material cropped to under 5 Tonne per hectare with most vineyard practices carried out by hand. As in the vineyard, the wine is hand crafted using traditional methods including a 25% whole bunch, indigenous fermentation and hand plunging. Maturation is in French barriques for 10 months, using a mix of older and new (20%) barrels. Tasting Notes Vintage Comment: The Two Paddocks 2016 harvest began on the 5th of April 2016. Overall very clean and balanced fruit was achieved from ripening under extended settled warm autumn conditions. After a cool start to the growing season with 18 frost events in 6 weeks, the heat really only arrived after flowering in late December. Rainfall for the entire 8-month growing season of Sept-Apr was low with only 160mm received in total. February was the start of the 'big finish', which saw an average temp of 19C for the month. This flowed into March, April and May, which were all warm, settled and dry. Vintage was extraordinarily compact meaning that all harvesting was over by the 26th of April. *All Two Paddocks fruit is hand-picked by our own crew. Winemakers Notes: Hand harvested, 75% de-stemmed and given a 5-7 day pre-fermentation cold maceration. After an indigenous ferment the wine is given another 5-7 days post ferment time on skins. Wine is then transferred to 1-4 (20% new oak) year old French medium toast barriques for a 10-month maturation, before racking and bottling. Estate Vineyard composition: 68% The Fusilier - Bannockburn, 13% - The Last Chance – Earnscleugh (Alexandra), 13% The Red Bank – Earnscleugh (Alexandra) and 6% The First Paddock – Gibbston. Aromatically this wine exhibits dried herb with a dark spice and bramble fruit spectrum, leading to an elegant textural mouthfeel showing minerality, great balance and drive.