Mt Difficulty

AWARDS

93pts, James Suckling Tasting Report 2021

A pretty nose of raspberries, cherries, dried flowers and vanilla. Cranberries, too. Subtle. Medium body with crisp acidity. Crunchy and succulent with tension and freshness. Vibrant finish. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

ABOUT

“Mansons Farm Pinot Noir is crafted in very limited quantities and only released in outstanding vintages. Savoury, warm earthen notes sit over a deep core of blue fruit - bluberry, plum, black cherry. Manson’s Farm signature violet floral notes are also present. A powerhouse wine. Initally tight and focussed on attack, with spice and cherry pit, however it builds and grows through the expansive midpalate. There is a much gentler feel to the tannins this vintage. Still present but beginning to soften into a long and plush finish.” Greg Lane, Winemaker

CELLARING POTENTIAL

We expect this wine to evolve with careful cellaring for another 5-15 years.

VINTAGE

A vintage of variability, contrasts and many different phases of weather through the growing season. A normal to warm start to the season was interrupted by a cold snap and snowfall mid-November. Weather over flowering was patchy, but overall flowering was successful. An oddity during summer this year was warmer nights and cooler days. this gives the appearance of a warmer season than it really was. There was a significant amount of early season rainfall, right through to the end of January. Cool and very dry conditions prevailed through February when verasion occurs - slowing that phase of ripening down. The heat and regular rainfall did reappear in March and then finally a very cool and lengthy final ripening phase through April.

VINEYARD

Mt Difficulty Single Vineyard wines are site specific, created to express the terroir from which they come, and thus Mt Difficulty Mansons Farm Pinot Noir is the essence of the vineyard itself. Mansons Farm is predominately made up of Gibbston outwash gravels. These gravels are formed from schist broken by glacial to varying sizes and then there is a thin cover of silt or sand. They are drought-prone soils, but are suitable to deep-rooted crops when managed carefully. The Pinot Noir vines on Mansons Farm are clones 113, 114 and 115. This vineyard is perchedatop the banks of the Kawarau River and is one of our newer vineyards in Felton Road,Bannockburn, planted in 2000 on grafted rootstock.

WINEMAKING CONSIDERATIONS

Hand picked fruit from the Manson’s Farm vineyard, harvested through the middle week of April. Clones were blended at crushing, to harmonize at an early stage. One fermenter contained 25% whole clusters. The must underwent a 7 day cold soak, followed by 8 days of active fermentation. During these first two weeks, the ferments were plunged once per day. After fermentation was complete, the wine was left undisturbed for a further 10 days to balance tannins before pressing. The young wine was settled overnight before racking to French oak barriques for 15 months. The wine was then racked from barrel and bottled unfined and unfiltered.