12 Wines of Christmas...Wine #9 revealed

The 9th wine of our 12 Wines of Christmas is our 2019 Pinot Noir, Shuttleworth Creek Vineyard. It’s time to wrap those last-minute gifts - so do it with our Pinot Noir - it really does make everything better. Cheers!

Our Shuttleworth Creek Vineyard continues to prove itself as an ideal site for high quality Pinot Noir. Being slightly cooler than our Estate vineyard, the fruit shows a distinctly different profile. A lifted, more feminine style to counter-balance the powerfully- structured wines produced from our Estate vineyard. 2019 was a cooler-than-usual vintage, which resulted in a lighter, more elegant style of Pinot Noir. 5 Dijon clones (777, 115, 667, 828 & Pommard) were blended to create this wine. All were kept separate through fermentation and 12 months of barrel ageing, until a final blend was decided on.

The grapes were 100% destemmed, without crushing, leaving as much whole berry fruit as possible. After a 48 hour cold soak, the must was warmed and inoculated with selected yeasts. Hand punch-downs started at 3 times daily and tapered off to once a day as tannins progressed. Free run juice was drained off and the skins were pressed off as soon as the primary ferment was completed. All lots were racked into 300L French oak barrels (16% new, remainder 2nd fill & 3rd fill), where each lot rested, untouched, for 12 months, before being blended, stabilized and bottled.

Varietals: 100% Pinot Noir
Alcohol: 13.0% alc./vol.
Residual Sugar: 1.4 g/L
Total Acidity: 5.6 g/L
pH: 3.6
Harvest Dates: Oct 14, 2019
Bottling Date: May 2021
Release Date: Aug 2021