Seifried Nelson Pinot Noir 2021

Silver - Mundus Vini Summer Tasting 2022
93 Points - Wine Orbit, September 2022, NZ
90 Points - Wine Enthusiast, November 2023, USA
86 Points - Bob Campbell MW, © The Real Review, www.therealreview.com, Oct 2022
4 Stars - Michael Cooper's Buyers Guide 2023, NZ

Vineyard: Seifried Rabbit Island and Brightwater vineyards
Sugar at Harvest: 23.2°Brix
Date of Harvest: Mid - late March 2021
pH of Wine: 3.47
T.A of Wine: 5.9g/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 very 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 farm equipment but vital for holding the warmth of Nelson’s sun and for ripening the Pinot Noir grapes.

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