Seifried Nelson Pinot Noir 2019

Vineyard: Seifried Brightwater and Rabbit Island vineyards
Sugar at Harvest: 23.9°Brix
Date of Harvest: Mid March 2019
pH of Wine: 3.57
T.A of Wine: 5.7g/L
Suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans: Yes

Our Brightwater vines are grown in an extremely stony area of the vineyard where water and nutrient levels are low. This helps us to restrict plant vigour and to crop at low levels. Our Brightwater vineyard is situated 15 km from the coast and is sheltered from the south by the Richmond ranges. The ‘soil’ is a combination of rocks and boulders which is very hard on farm equipment but vital for holding the warmth of Nelson’s sun and for ripening the Pinot Noir grapes.

Our Rabbit Island vineyard is situated on a wide river flat. The soil is gravelly loam which is very free-draining. This vineyard is about 1.5 km from the sea which helps moderate temperatures.

The fruit in our 2019 Seifried Nelson Pinot Noir comes from both our Brightwater and Rabbit Island vineyards where our Pinot Noir vines are over thirty years in age and are showing great maturity and depth of flavour. Summer 18-19 was baking hot and dry throughout January and February, leading to beautiful ripe and healthy fruit.

Parcels of fruit were picked incrementally in March 2019 at the peak of flavour and phenolic ripeness. The de-stemmed fruit had a brief cold maceration period before individual parcels were inoculated for fermentation. Throughout fermentation, plunging occurred twice daily and was tapered off to once daily as the fermentation finished. The young wine was drained to new, one and two-year-old French barriques for malolactic fermentation and barrel ageing. The wine was stabilised and bottled late 2019.