Seifried Nelson Pinot Noir 2020

Awards

93 Points - “The Shout”, July 2021, Cameron Douglas MS
90 Points (4.5 Stars) - Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, July 2021, New Zealand
90 Points - Bob Campbell MW, © The Real Review, therealreview.com

Wine Analysis

Vineyard: Seifried Rabbit Island and Brightwater Vineyards
Sugar at Harvest: 23.6°Brix
Date of Harvest: Mid - late March 2020
pH of Wine: 3.54
T.A of Wine: 5.3g/L
Suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans

The Vineyard

Our Rabbit Island vineyard is situated on a wide river flat. The soil is gravelly loam which is very sandy and free draining. These vineyards are about 1.5 kilometres from the sea which helps moderate temperatures.

Our Brightwater vines are grown in an extremely stony area of the vineyard where water and nutrient levels are low. This helps us to restrict the plants vigour and to crop at low levels. Our Brightwater Vineyard is situated 15km from the coast and is sheltered from the south by the Richmond ranges. The ‘soil’ is a combination of rocks and boulders which is very hard on the farm equipment but vital for holding the warmth of Nelson’s sun and for ripening the Pinot Noir grapes.

Winemakers Note

2020 was another excellent year in Nelson on the back of the outstanding 2019 vintage. We enjoyed a great growing season with the challenge coming when Covid lockdown co-incided with our harvest period. Thankfully we were deemed an “essential business” and could continue with our harvest under very strict Covid health and safety measures.

The fruit in our 2020 Seifried Nelson Pinot Noir comes from both our Rabbit Island and Brightwater vineyards where our Pinot Noir vines are over thirty years in age and are showing great maturity and depth of flavour.

Parcels of fruit were picked incrementally in March 2020 at the peak of flavour and phenolic ripeness. The de-stemmed fruit had a brief cold maceration period before individual parcels were inoculated for fermentation. Throughout fermentation plunging occurred twice daily and was tapered off to once daily as the fermentation finished. The young wine was drained to new, one and two year old French barriques for malolactic fermentation and barrel ageing. The wine was stabilised and bottled May 2020.

Tasting Note

The 2020 Seifried Nelson Pinot Noir has aromatic pomegranate, tamarillo and fresh cherry notes on the nose. The palate has savoury notes of mocha, together with nutmeg and plummy fruit. Fine oak tannins complement the fruit weight leaving a generous warm finish in the wine.

"Attractively aromatic pinot noir, with moderately intense stewed plum, dark cherry and raspberry flavours with a suggestion of spice, anise and nutty oak. Excellent value at this price.”

90 Points - Bob Campbell MW, © The Real Review, therealreview.com