Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2022

Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir, Central Otago, New Zealand, 2022

Grape: 100% Pinot Noir, hand picked, natural yeast fermentation using 20% whole cluster fruit. Aged for 13 months in 25% new French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. No fining or filtering. Vine age: 7-27 years.

Felton Road farms four properties totalling 32 ha in the Bannockburn sub-region of Central Otago. This wine is a blend from all four vineyards; Cornish Point, Calvert, MacMuir and The Elms.

A strict 100% estate policy with fully organic and biodynamic viticulture ensures that fruit arrives at the winery as pure as it can be, while the entire estate comes as close to true sustainability as is possible. A commitment to hands off winemaking: gravity flow, wild yeasts, wild malolactic, an avoidance of fining and filtration all help preserve the wine's expression of its terroir.

Winemaker's Tasting Note:

A vivid nose of deep florals: dark roses, violets, and an undertow of ripe red fruit. The palate really shows the best of each vineyard that makes up the cuvée. A pure but powerful drive of fruit on a perfect cusp of ripeness, with complexing notes of sandalwood and spice. This is all about harmony and balance with the transparency of fruit allowing the detail to shine through. Silken tannins finish the package.

Critics' Tasting Notes:

"Deliciously fragrant and intense floral aroma that follows on to the palate where it is joined by cassis, dark cherry, black Doris plum, vanilla, savoury dried herbs and mixed spice and anise flavours. This could is the best Bannockburn pinot noir that I can recall tasting. It has an ethereal texture and a backbone of fine tannins. Absolutely delicious wine!"

97/100 points, Bob Campbell MW, THE REAL REVIEW, August 2023

"Deep colour. Fruit sits firmly in the blue spectrum; bilberry and damson plum. Some dried thyme too.
Opulent, fruit saturated flavours are silky and ripe at first then tannins sweep in to give a fine powdery
veneer across the palate. Lacks the layered complexity of the single vineyard pinots but instead is a
delightful expression of pinot, that will be approachable in the medium term." Drink from 2025 - 2030.

***** 95/100 points, Jane Skilton MW (Jasper Morris - Inside Burgundy), March 2024

Try this wine with lamb samosas or a Massaman duck curry.