Viticulture

We always manage our Pinot Gris vines in a similar way to our Pinot Noir. Canopy management with good but not excessive fruit exposure is important. The vines are shoot thinned prior to flowering and on veraison, when the grapes are turning pink, crop thinning is carried out to balance the crop and intensify the flavours in the remaining grapes. The resulting yield was reduced to 2 tonnes/ acre, the equivalent of 34 hl/ha.

The Staete Landt Pinot Gris consists of four small parcels of vines grown in two areas of the vineyard that have higher depth of soil and less river gravel than the rest of the vineyard.

Harvest Dates: 11th April 2008
Brix: 24.6 – 25.2

Winemaking

The grapes were hand picked when they had reached optimum ‘flavour’ ripeness. With Pinot Gris this occurs just before the berries begin to slightly raisin. Grapes were loaded directly to the press and gently whole bunch pressed. The resultant juice settled for twelve hours and then fermented (partially with wild yeast, largely with cultured yeasts) with a proportion of solids in old French oak puncheons and some old barriques.

A portion of the wine (20%) went through the secondary malo-lactic fermentation to enhance texture and complexity. The wine aged in oak on very light lees for nine months. The wine was subsequently racked again prior to a light filtration and bottling.

Wine Analysis

Alcohol: 14 %; Acidity: 6 g/l; pH: 3.3; Sugar: <2 g/l

Tasting Note

This wine is a lovely example of the varietal. It is full round and ripe in the mouth with quinces, guava and papaya aromas combined with intriguing nutty complexity. It has excellent length and structure. This wine is very approachable whilst young but will gain complexity over the next five years.