Viticulture

The 2004 Pinot Noir is the fourth release of this Estate Grown wine from the Staete Landt Vineyard in Marlborough’s Rapaura area. A completely different weather pattern ensured we were kept on our toes. The spring started of relatively cool with a few scary nights of frost warnings. It then settled in a very warm and dry period that allowed very good even flowering and consequently fruit set. This warm weather continued through to the last part of January when the weather became cool and relatively wet. This coolness continued throughout February, which caused some anxiety but did not affect the vines health! The final one and half months prior to harvest were ideal: warm and very dry often with very cool night time temperatures. The cropping level of the vines was adjusted to just below 2 tonnes/acre (30 hl/ha) during veraison ensuring that we obtained the best possible fruit with complexity and concentration. This crop adjustment also gives us the opportunity to cull any bunches that were not as well advanced and thus to obtain evenness in ripening within each block. By the time we came to harvest the crop of pinot noir was in excellent condition with very good ripeness and good tannin and colour composition.
The grapes were hand picked from twelve different Pinot Noir blocks comprising mainly of clone 777, clone 115, clone 114 and clone 5 from different terroirs in our vineyard and planted in different rootstock combinations.

Harvest Dates: 29th March 2004, 2nd April 2004
Brix: 23.9 – 25.8

Winemaking

Only hand picked grapes were used for this wine. These were de-stemmed only to tank where they under went a cold maceration phase for seven days prior to fermentation and a post ferment maceration of up to 25 days. Total time on skins varied with the fruit lot but the maximum was 35 days. The wine was pressed off and settled briefly before being racked straight to barrels to undergo Malo lactic fermentation. The wine was aged in a mixture of 25% new French oak and 75% older French oak barrels.
They were then aged on lees until they were eventually racked in March 2005 when they were blended and returned to barrel.
The wine was aged in barrel for a total of 14 months. Finally the wine was again racked from barrels in June 2005 given some polishing filtration before bottling.

Wine Analysis

Alcohol: 13.8%; Acidity: 5.6 g/l; pH: 3.58; Sugar: <2g/l

Tasting Note

This wine was aged in 25% new French oak barrels and 75% older French oak barrels. This has produced a subtle, well structured wine with ripe fruit tannins. This pinot noir has aromas of ripe black cherries and violets with a lovely earthy complexity. A full bodied elegant wine with great complexity and a lingering finish.
This wine will repay cellaring for three to five years.