Te tera Pinot noir 2008

Following on from the runaway success of the 2007 Te Tera Pinot Noir we have released a small portion of our 2008 to tide the happy followers over to the main release later in the season.

From one of the best seasons seen in Martinborough this sexy Pinot carries on where the award winning 07 left off.

Gorgeous chocolate and plum notes on the nose led to silky smooth tannins with layers of dark fruits coming through on the palate. We know you will enjoy this special release as much as you have the previous vintages.

VINEYARD

Our Pinot Noir blocks are hand harvested from vines ageing up to 27years – some of New Zealand’s oldest Pinot Noir vines. A range of 10 clones including Abel, 10/5 and some of the newer Dijon clones are planted and give complexity to the final blend.

The vineyards are situated on the Martinborough Terrace, which is famed for its deep, free draining, ancient river bed soils which are ideal for making ultra premium Pinot Noir wines. 

The region has a cool, maritime climate along with other beneficial climatic drivers including a rain shadow, one of the country’s largest diurnal temperature differentials, windy springs and a long warm period through autumn.  All this results in a natural low-vigour site regulating crops and enabling high quality, consistent, ripe fruit.

VINIFICATION

All fruit is carefully sorted in the vineyard at harvest and again in the winery before being processed. All the fruit for Te Tera Pinot Noir is destemmed and carefully tipped into 5-6T open fermentors.

The wine underwent a cool pre-ferment maceration for 5-8 days and spent an average time on skins of about 20 days before all being pressed to French oak barrels. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in barrel and remained on its lees for 10 months before racking, blending and bottling.

Indigenous yeasts are used which add to the wine’s complexity in addition to traditional methods of punching down the ferments by hand.

The famed Martinborough climate of long dry, warm summers is perfect for grape growing and 2008 was no exception. Excellent winter soil moisture levels combined with a very settled spring gave us some of the best flowering conditions we have ever seen. This resulted in an even fruit set and average crop yields across all varieties. Glorious summer weather followed on into the New Year with temperatures in the early thirties and minimal rainfall. This dream season meant all our vineyards were again in great condition allowing us to pick at optimum ripeness.

If only Mother Nature was this kind all the time.