Felton Road MacMuir Pinot Noir 2022
Beginning with meticulous site selection and vineyard design started 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) ensuring their fruit arrives at the winery as pure as it can be, while their 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.
Felton Road farms four properties totalling 34 ha in the Bannockburn sub-region of Central Otago. This wine is from MacMuir vineyard which is just 1 km east of the Elms vineyard and winery, and just 300m west of Calvert. The vineyard possesses a higher vine
density, a range of clones and deep heavy silt soils. Meticulous summer management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity.
The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping, retaining 25% 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.
Sometimes it can be hard to find a word to match what seems so clear to the senses. The nose is dark, as is the colour, beguiling, but restrained. There is a stature to the palate here; a sort of authority to the way it stands back and allows you to explore its detail. A definite sprig of herbs, chocolate notes, but still so transparent that every nuance is revealed. It seems extraordinary that this is just the second time we’ve made MacMuir as a single vineyard release: it’s Felton Road, to be sure, but in a different dimension.
Intense wine that is on the dark side with concentrated flavours that suggest black fruits, cacao powder, liquorice and anise supported by sweet, chewy tannins A wine of substance and of promise. Time will add new layers to an already tantalisingly complex wine. - Bob Campbell, The Real Review, 97 Points.
The Finer Details
Style - Red Wine
Varietal - Pinot Noir
Country - New Zealand
Region - Central Otago
Vintage - 2022
Bottle Size - 750ml
ABV - 14.5%
Other - Organic & Biodynamic
Closure - Screw Cap