Exceptional Vintage Pinot Noir 2017

Intense black cherry and dark berry fruit aromas with complex florals and spice. Concentrated dark cherry flavours, fleshy tannins, with a long rich finish.

Vineyard & Winemaking

Only made in exceptional vintages, this wine was grown

exclusively on elevated river terraces, in the cooler Mangatahi sub-region, inland Hawke’s Bay. The Sileni vineyards sit at higher altitude, making them substantially cooler than other sub-regions and well suited for growing quality Pinot Noir.

Soils are free draining silt over gravels, the vineyard is planted with clones 114, 115 and 667. Crops were thinned to 1.4kg/ vine providing complex, ripe and concentrated fruit flavours.

This EV wine was fermented in two tonne open top tanks, which were hand-plunged twice daily, to gently extract colour and tannin. Predominantly inoculated with cultured yeast, the wine went through primary fermentation in approximately seven days and stayed on skins for a further three weeks before pressing. Only free run is used in this blend. The wine was then racked to French barriques (225L) with light solids, completing malolactic fermentation naturally in spring. It matured for nine months in barrel before being blended. After blending the wine went back into aged barrels for a further four months. The final blend consists of 20% new oak and 50% second fill, with a small whole bunch component (6%).