Yealands Reserve Pinot Noir 2020

Bouquet: Concentrated notes of ripe dark cherries and plums with hints of spice. Palate: This wine has an attractive palate with flavours of dark berries and warming spices, balanced with silky tannins, to create a smooth finish. Food Match: Enjoy with red meats such as venison or slow roasted leg of lamb, or for a vegetarian option, jackfruit enchiladas.

Our low yielding Pinot Noir blocks were harvested at optimum ripeness. The parcels were warmed and inoculated with selected yeasts. A fast, hot fermentation proceeded with delicate cap management to craft a wine with elegance and balance. The parcels were gently pressed off after a short period of post ferment maceration to achieve the desired tannin balance. The wine was aged with French oak while undergoing malolactic fermentation. It was then blended, stabilised, and filtered prior to bottling.

We were incredibly lucky to be able to continue to create these wines during the global pandemic crisis. For this reason, our 2020 wines carry some very unique memories. The 2020 growing season was very dry, which meant disease pressure was low and some timely light rains kept just enough water flowing in our rivers. We had a classic Marlborough autumn with warm days and cool nights. Vintage started in mid-March and it provided us with incredibly stable weather. This meant we could pick blocks at their optimum ripeness, resulting in well balanced Pinot Noir parcels, showing characters full of flavour and lovely weight.