Luna Estate Martinborough Pinot Noir 2022

Luna Estate Martinborough Pinot Noir 2022"Pristine and elegantly fragrant, the bouquet shows sweet cherry, pomegranate, olive and subtle spice aromas, leading to a succulent palate offering bright fruit flavours with supple texture and fine grained tannins. Beautifully composed with finesse and harmony. At its best: now to 2029" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jun 2023 "Vibrant, lifted, fruity, varietal and very new bouquet. Scents of dark cherry flesh and sweet red plums, violets and savoury dried

"Pristine and elegantly fragrant, the bouquet shows sweet cherry, pomegranate, olive and subtle spice aromas, leading to a succulent palate offering bright fruit flavours with supple texture and fine-grained tannins. Beautifully composed with finesse and harmony. At its best: now to 2029" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jun 2023

"Vibrant, lifted, fruity, varietal and very new bouquet. Scents of dark cherry flesh and sweet red plums, violets and savoury dried herb qualities. Aromas of smoky wood and dried earth mineral qualities layer incomplexity and breadth. The youthful savoury qualities touch the palate first followed by flavours of dark plums and black currant then cherry. The smoky oak and earthy savoury qualities are persistent adding length and texture to the palate. Firm tannins, medium+ acid line and lengthy finish. A wine that could do with some cellar time with best drinking likely from early to mid 2025 through 2033+" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Jun 2023

Nice, vibrant ruby red colour. Sweetly scented and classically “Martinborough” with a nice balance of red cherry, pretty florals and savoury, earthy notes. A delicious array of ripe and succulent red berry/cherry flavours and layers. Lovely spice and quite a lot of fruit and oak sweetness on the finish, complimented nicely by silky tannins and delicate acidity. Nice, fresh and youthful Pinot Noir expression. Great drinking now and will cellar nicely for 5 plus years.

Pulling off a viable crop is a tricky task even when the weather is playing along. Some seasonsthe gods are not smiling though and it these seasons which feel like they are sent to test us! The 21/22 spring was strongly influenced by a strong La Nina cycle which created frequent NE weather events across the East Coast of the North Island bringing high humidity and frequentrain events, conditions which are less than ideal for grape farming; Pinot Noir in particular. Ourvineyard team did an amazing job in highly challenging conditions to get us to a great positionin Mid – January where it looked like an excellent crop was on the cards, plus the crucial periodof flowering in late November turned out to be near perfect for the task. It felt like the regionas a whole had somehow pulled off a miracle! The good vibes were short lived unfortunately when a rainfall event of biblical proportionsstruck the region in the 2nd week of February, around a third of annual rainfall fell over twodays! Pinot Noir vineyards on the terrace, particularly those with Dijon clones were worstaffected with widespread berry collapse followed by shrivel. Botrytis was also a very realthreat and swept through many blocks making picking near impossible. Producers like us withsites off the terrace and a higher portion of the later ripening Pinot clones; Abel, 10/5 forexample, certainly fared better. White varieties, because they are later ripening , were largelyunaffected and quality across the board quality was high, ditto for Syrah. Looking at the wines 6 -7 months on I am extremely happy with what I see. It is the mostsatisfying to produce great wines in difficult years.

As always, crafted using 100% Estate grown Pinot Noir harvested from both of our vineyards. Majority harvested from the younger vines growing on the clay/limestone hillside of the Blue Rock Vineyard. All fruit was de-stemmed and gently transferred into 6 ton open toptemperature controlled stainless steel fermenters. The fruit was chilled down and held for a 5-6day ‘cold soak’ to aid in colour and flavour extraction. Once the cooling was turned off theferment began as the fruit slowly came up to ambient temperature. Once fermentation is in progress each ‘ferment’ is plunged once or twice daily. Temperature isclosely monitored with a peak of around 30 degrees C allowed towards the end of thefermentation. Total maceration time was between 15–30 days before gentle pressing followedby oak maturation for 10 months. Bottled following minimal fining and gentle filtration.Contains no animal products.

Food Pairing: Braised rabbit pappardelle.