Vavasour Papa Awatere Valley Pinot Noir 2022

Vavasour Papa Awatere Valley Pinot Noir 2022This unadulterated wine is poised and complex with pure, resolute flavours of dark cherry, ripe doris plum and violets. A youthful density evolves to express a broody and savoury complexity which speaks clearly of this most singular place. For all its raw beauty, the Awatere Valley is home to unforgiving soils, cool winds and some of the driest conditions in the country. But we have been here from the start. We know intimately how these very elements

This unadulterated wine is poised and complex with pure, resolute flavours of dark cherry, ripe doris plum and violets. A youthful density evolves to express a broody and savoury complexity which speaks clearly of this most singular place.

For all its raw beauty, the Awatere Valley is home to unforgiving soils, cool winds and some of the driest conditions in the country. But we have been here from the start. We know intimately how these very elements conspire to produce remarkable wines, like our Papa Pinot Noir. Named for the compacted blue-grey mudstone that holds tight to the roots of our mature vines, Papa Pinot Noir is made in small parcels on the sloping upper terraces of the Awatere Valley.

A vintage that proves less can be more. Spring frosts and cool temperatures during the flowering period resulted in lower yields. The remainder of the growing season gave way to dry and warmer than average weather. These favorable conditions coupled with lower yields meant the fruit was allowed to reach peak ripeness with high levels of concentration and intensity of flavour. Papa Pinot Noir was harvested in perfect condition throughout March just before the Autumn rains arrived.

Fruit was hand harvested at peak ripeness and received immediately at the winery where the majority of berries were gently removed from the stems and put to stainless steel tanks. Some select parcels were left as full clusters and put directly to tank for a cold soaking period allowing gentle extraction. The tanks were then warmed for a fermentation with the assistance of pied de cuve starter cultures propagated in the vineyard, allowing full expression of the vineyard and the wine’s provenance. The ferments were gently hand plunged and pumped over each day. Following fermentation the wines were pressed off skins and racked into French oak barrels for a delicate maturation. The wines passed malolactic during the spring and were blended in late summer then allowed to settle in stainless steel for 3 months before being bottled unfiltered and unfined at the end of spring.