Old Coach Road Nelson Pinot Noir 2021

88 Points (4 Stars) - Wine Orbit, August 2022, New Zealand

Vineyard: Seifried Brightwater and Rabbit Island vineyards
Sugar at Harvest: 23.1°Brix
Date of Harvest: Mid - Late March 2021
pH of Wine: 3.43
T.A of Wine: 6.4g/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.

2021 was another excellent year in Nelson on the back of a run of several outstanding vintages. We enjoyed a great growing season albeit a very light vintage due to frost and Boxing Day hail.

The fruit in our 2021 Old Coach Road Nelson Pinot Noir comes from both our Rabbit Island and Brightwater vineyards where our Pinot Noir vines well are over thirty years in age and are showing great maturity and depth of flavour.

Parcels of fruit were picked incrementally in March 2021 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 July 2022.