Old Coach Road Nelson Pinot Noir 2020

Silver (94 Points) - New World Wine Awards 2021, New Zealand
90 Points - “The Shout”, July 2021, Cameron Douglas MS
89 Points - Bob Campbell MW, © The Real Review, therealreview.com
87 Points (4 Stars) - Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, July 2021, New Zealand

Vineyard: Seifried Brightwater and Rabbit Island vineyards
Sugar at Harvest: 23.7°Brix
Date of Harvest: Mid - Late March 2020
pH of Wine: 3.57
T.A of Wine: 5.2g/L
Suitable for Vegans and Vegetarians: Yes

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.

Our Rabbit Island vineyard is situated on a wide river flat. The soil is made up of gravelly, sandy loam, which marks the sites of Māori kūmara (sweet potato) beds prior to European settlement in the early 1800s. The Māori transferred and spread fine gravel and sand over the land to provide suitable soils for their kūmara plantings. Scrub was burned to give ash and charcoal, which increased soil fertility and gave characteristic topsoil. This fertility is now considerably reduced due to modern farming. The soils are, however, very sandy and free-draining. The water table is relatively high, ensuring adequate underground water.

2020 was another excellent year in Nelson on the back of the outstanding 2019 vintage. We enjoyed a great growing season with the challenge coming when Covid lockdown coincided with our harvest period. Thankfully we were deemed an “essential business” and could continue with our harvest under very strict Covid health and safety measures.

The fruit in our 2020 Old Coach Road Nelson Pinot Noir comes from both our Rabbit Island and Brightwater vineyards where our Pinot Noir vines are over thirty years in age and are showing great maturity and depth of flavour.

Parcels of fruit were picked incrementally in March 2020 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 May 2020.