Seifried Nelson Pinot Noir 2020

Silver - China Wine Competition, 2021
93 Points - The Shout, July 2021, Cameron Douglas MS
90 Points - Bob Campbell MW, © The Real Review, therealveview.com, June 2021
90 Points (4.5 Stars) - Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, 2021

Vineyard: Seifried Rabbit Island and Brightwater vineyards
Sugar at Harvest: 23.6°Brix
Date of Harvest: Mid - late March 2020
pH of Wine: 3.54
T.A of Wine: 5.3g/L
Suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans: Yes

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

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 the Nelson’s sun and for ripening the Pinot Noir grapes.

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 Seifried Nelson Pinot Noir comes from both our Rabbit Island and Brightwater vineyards where our Pinot Noir vines are over 30 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.