Jules Taylor OTQ Single Vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noir 2020

Jules Taylor OTQ Single Vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noir 2020French oak Poached plum Hazelnut & spice Spicy tannins "A stylish rendition, this is rich and opulent yet elegant and graceful with dark berry, smoked game, warm mushroom and hazelnut characters, leading to an exquisitely silky palate that's multi layered and persistent. Brilliantly structured by seamlessly integrated tannins, finishing impressively long and engaging. At its best: now to 2030" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Oct 2021 "Alcohol and fruit sweetness

• French oak
• Poached plum
• Hazelnut & spice
• Spicy tannins

"A stylish rendition, this is rich and opulent yet elegant and graceful with dark berry, smoked game, warm mushroom and hazelnut characters, leading to an exquisitely silky palate that's multi-layered and persistent. Brilliantly structured by seamlessly integrated tannins, finishing impressively long and engaging. At its best: now to 2030" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Oct 2021

"Alcohol and fruit sweetness competes with a backbone of drying tannins—the tannins win. Moderately intense pinot noir with floral, red rose, ripe cherry, wood smoke, grape stems and spicy oak flavours. A rich and quite complex red that will reward cellaring" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Dec 2021

Bright red-purple. Violet, poached plum and stewed tamarillo notes overlay darker hints of blackberry and vanilla compote. The nose is completed by lovely smoky, earthy spice and hints of cocoa and cinnamon from the French oak barriques. Generous and juicy on the palate, this Pinot Noir has an elegant structure embracing a beautiful balance of berry fruit and savoury flavours. Smoky oak and firm, spicy tannins leading to a long, dry finish.

The season started cool and unsettled, but temperatures quickly warmed up leading to an early, quick flowering. The last substantial rainfall of summer was on 17th December and after that Marlborough dried out. This wasn’t obvious early in January as ash from the Australian bushfires resulted in a lot of cooler cloudy weather. However, the season warmed up in February and the grapes went through veraison in very good, clean condition. In the last week or so the nights cooled off, allowing extra flavour development heading into harvest. On Monday 23rd March, as we were handpicking our first Sauvignon Blanc, we heard that New Zealand was heading into lockdown for a month. Thankfully, harvest was able to continue and the weather played its part superbly. Apart from the stress caused by virus, the harvest was a breeze with some of the best condition fruit we have ever seen. The last grapes were harvested on 6th April and brought the surreal vintage to a close.

The grapes for this Pinot Noir were grown organically and biodynamically on the Wrekin Vineyard which lies in Marlborough’s Brancott Valley. Positioned on northwestern facing slopes, set in deep clay soils, this charming little vineyard was carefully managed to provide a very low-yielding, highly concentrated crop of quality Pinot Noir clones: Abel, 667, 777 and a smidgeon of 114. The bunches were hand harvested in mid to late March, then de-stemmed into small open top fermenters where they were cold soaked for six days. The wine was then fermented with indigenous yeast. Delicate hand plunging during fermentation ensured gentle extraction of tannins and colour. After some time on skins and extended maceration, the wine was pressed into a combination of new and old French barriques where it underwent a full malolactic fermentation. After nine months in barrel, the wine was given a light egg white fining and bottled.

Food Pairing: Exceptional with most red meats, try it with this recipe for bbq lamb cutlets with beetroot skordalia and black garlic. It is also great with mushrooms or eggplant dishes.