Product Information:
This wine jubilant, oscillating between fruit and exotic spice. There's plenty of Cornish Point intrigue in the form of exotic woods, think sandalwood, rich mahogany. Smells of fine chocolate, gentle herby edges and floral perfume. Palate is seamless and smooth with beautifully balanced tannins - integrated, ever-present but not overbearing. Top marks.
Felton Road farms four properties totalling 34 ha in the Bannockburn sub-region of Central Otago. This wine is from Cornish Point vineyard where the close proximity to Lake Dunstan (surrounded on three sides) creates a unique mesoclimate. Heavy silt soils overlie alluvial gravels interspersed with calcareous seams. Meticulous summer management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity. Shoot thinning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning and harvest are all carried out by hand to ensure optimum quality fruit. Cover crops are planted between rows to assist in vine balance and to improve soil health and general biodiversity.
The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping, with 20% retained as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately long maceration on skins has extracted good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This wine was aged for 13 months in 25% new French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In accordance with our non-interventionalist approach to winemaking, this wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and malolactic, and was not fined or filtered.
Maker:
Commencing with meticulous site selection and vineyard design in 1991, Felton Road's story is one of refusal to compromise. A strict 100% estate policy with fully organic and biodynamic viticulture (BioGro and Demeter certified) ensures that our fruit arrives at the winery as pure as it can be, while our entire estate comes as close to true sustainability as is possible. A commitment to hands off winemaking: gravity flow, wild yeasts, wild malo, an avoidance of fining and filtration all help preserve the wine's expression of its terroir. The result is Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir which accurately express the authenticity and complexity of our unique vineyards. Gareth King; Viticulturist, Blair Walter; Winemaker, Nigel Greening; Proprietor.
Felton Road choses to apply Biodynamic Agriculture. This approach is suggested by the German philosopher, Rudolph Steiner, in the 1920’s: it the next step beyond conventional organics (which is a pre-requisite to Biodynamics) and starts, in essence, with a simple idea: If we view a farm as a single, symbiotic living organism, then the more vigorous and complex that organism is, the richer the growing medium it provides for everything within the farm. In other words, the goal of Biodynamics is to maximise the living energy within this system in order to make it self-sustaining and of the highest quality.
So to maximise the living energy within their soils, Felton Road makes Biodynamic composts which form the foundation of this growing regime. Further Biodynamic strategies are employed in their vineyards including planting cover crops and wild flowers within the vineyard itself. Beyond sustainability, Biodynamics also promotes guardianship of the land by maximising the biodiversity it supports. For instance the hillsides behind the vines are home to a herd of goats, which keep the briar at bay while supplying meat for the table. Within the vineyard, they keep a clutch of chickens that forage amongst the vines, repaying them with natural manure, and supplying the team with delicious, organic eggs. Idyllic stuff.
Vineyard:
In the 2023 season Spring temperatures and rainfall were normal with only a couple of mild frost events which were successfully fought. Flowering proceeded in warm and relatively stable weather and resulted in setting a normal sized crop across all three varieties. December was warm and dry with these conditions further exacerbated over the next several weeks until a welcome rain event on February 21. With the relatively dry conditions prevailing for the previous months, this event and the periodic rain throughout March (but still only 43mm recorded), did not present any disease pressure issues and provided welcome relief to the warm and somewhat previous stressful conditions. Cooler night temperatures arrested the ripening for slow and steady development. Harvest commenced on March 23, and fears of an early, hot and fast harvest were fortunately not realised. Riesling was harvested from April 4-13.
Nose - Vivacious Fruit, Truffle Note, Mahogany
Vivacious punnet of red berries, garrigue, and Xmas cake spices.
Palate - Savoury Tone, Frisky Red Berries, Seamless
Glides across the palate with ease and a seamless, smooth. Great energy too. Vibrant and harmonious.
Finish - Open Weave, Balanced Tannins, Sandalwood
The tannins are beautifully balanced and integrated, ever present, but never interfering; just contributing to the overall stature.
The Finer Details
Style - Red Wine
Varietal - Pinot Noir
Country - New Zealand
Region - Central Otago
Vintage - 2023
Bottle Size - 750ml
ABV - 14%
Other - Organic & Biodynamic
Closure - Screw Cap
