Winemakers Collection Nelson Pinot Noir 2015

Wine Analysis

Vineyard: Seifried Rabbit Island Vineyard
Date of Harvest: Mid April 2015
pH of Wine: 3.59
T.A of Wine: 5.6g/L
Residual Sugar: <1g/L

The Vineyard

The Rabbit Island vineyard is situated on a wide river flat. The soil is gravelly sandy loam, which marks the sites of Maori kumara beds (sweet potato) prior to European settlement in the early 1800’s. The Maori transferred and spread fine gravel and sand over the land to provide suitable soils for their kumara plantings. Scrub was burned to give ash and charcoal, which increased soil fertility and gave characteristic topsoil. This fertility is now considerably reduced due to modern farming. The soils are however, very sandy and free draining. The water table is relatively high ensuring adequate underground water. These vineyards are about 1.5 kilometres from the sea, which helps moderate summer temperatures.

Winemakers Note

The Seifried Winemakers Collection Pinot Noir 2015 is a barrel selection of wine from some of our oldest Pinot Noir vines on our Rabbit Island vineyard where vines date to the late 1980’s. Vine age is apparent in this vineyard which has deep-rooted vines and to produce wines with depth and beauty. The grapes were picked in mid April at the peak of ripeness and then promptly de-stemmed and transferred to open-top fermenters. A five-day cold-maceration period preceded inoculation for fermentation. Hand plunging was carried out three times a day during the eight-day primary fermentation, followed by a five day period of post-fermentation maceration. After pressing, the young wine was drained into French barriques where it underwent malolactic fermentation and ageing.

This wine is blended from a selection of the barrels which our winemakers consider to be the very best of our 2015 Pinot Noir. 2015 was a remarkable year in Nelson, particularly for red grape varietals. Crops were significantly down on long term averages and this lead to very concentrated fruit from exceptionally low yielding vines. The wine was blended and bottled in July 2016.

Tasting Note

The 2015 Seifried Winemakers Collection Pinot Noir has intense varietal aromas of black doris plum and sweet dark boysenberries.  The palate has ripe juicy entry and lasting flavours of dark cherries and supple mature tannins which leave a long finish.