With every new vintage we are finding the demand for our wine outstripping supply.
Our 2023 Vintage is currently only available through our club, via the Winemaker's Selection mixed pack.
Current active club members will receive our 2023 Estate Pinot Noir in the next shipment.
2023 Delamere Pinot Noir
VINTAGE CONDITIONS
Our wines from the 2023 vintage will show the great elegance and finesse that comes with a cooler season. Taut acidity balanced by a crescendo of lifted aromatic flavours will make these wines an essential addition to any serious wine cellar.
The third year of a ‘la nina’ weather pattern brought high rainfall and lower temperatures throughout the 2022 spring. Thankfully the rare, deep, red-ferrosol soils on which the Delamere vineyard is planted provide excellent drainage, and we were able to get our equipment onto the vineyard between showers to give the growing vines all the attention they required. A change to warmer conditions through December and January helped the ripening process catch up, but wet conditions returned through February and March. Judicious canopy management and a lucky warm, dry break in early April, allowed us to ripen our fruit for the Delamere Estate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to perfection.
WINEMAKING
The Pinot Noir was hand harvested from blocks on the Delamere vineyard aged from 23 and 42 years old. In 2023, we included roughly 30% whole bunches in all of the Delamere Pinot ferments. The fruit is fermented in open-top fermenters using hand plunging to extract colour and create the harmnious tannin structure. Each parcel commenced fermentation naturally, and was completed with a cultured yeast. The wine was pressed off after two to three weeks and filled to Burgundian coopered oak (30% new) to mature for 9 months before bottling.
TASTING NOTES
This wine has a very lifted fragrant aroma of delicate strawberries, and fresh raspberries and just a hint of violets. Earthy, savory notes of cedar, potpourri and aniseed are present on a palate showing delicate red currant fruits, framed by fine cocoa-power-like tannins. The wine travels across the palate with precision and tension. Minerally acidity gives great length to the wine with a lingering impression of violets, dark chocolate and chinotto. This is a tightly-wound and delicate wine, which will bloom over the next few years to reveal a depth of flavour and complexity that pinot noir is renown for.