Colour
Light red – not deep.
Aroma
Mainly in the red fruits spectrum.
Palate
This is quite a light bodied pinot noir although the flavour profile is strong. The whole bunch character is much more muted than the 2015 pinot even though at 45% the proportion was the same.
Cellaring
The wine has drunk well from the time of bottling and will continue like this for another five to seven years when I think it will be at its best.
Vintage
Each successive vintage proves our earliest ever in the twenty year history of our vintages and 2016 was again our earliest with picking of the pinot taking place in the first days of March. Yields were above our long-term average 38HL/ha (2t/acre) and nudged 57HL/ha (3t/acre).
Vinification
After pressing the wine went into French oak barriques and hogsheads of which 20% was new oak. Malolactic fermentation occurred naturally in the barrels.
General Comments
Although a lighter coloured wine this is still an intensely flavoured pinot noir and certainly fulfils our mantra of ‘power without weight’. Because we had more than usual we have bottled half of it using diam corks and half under screw cap. It will be an interesting exercise to watch the development of the wine under the differing closure.
