Aster Pinot Noir 2013
Tasting Notes
The colour is classic Pinot; bright, light red. This is the third year that we have made a Pinot Noir from our vineyards and it seems we have made once again an even, light to middle-weight wine with length and balance. There are lovely fresh red fruits on the nose which follow through to the palate. This wine will take being chilled on a hot day and works equally well as an aperitif or with a range of food such as salads, cheese, chicken dishes or charcuterie.
Vintage
We had good winter rains then warm summer conditions which brought about an early harvest. We had a few hot-cool-hot-cool periods which made it a little trickier to decide when to pick, but Joch reckons he got it right in the end.
Winemaking
Pinot Noir was planted on our Braden’s vineyard in 1987, with many hands making light work; one notable pair of hands involved in planting were those of the schoolboy Joch who was put to work in the vineyards every holiday. We put about 30% of the Pinot Noir through carbonic fermentation in plastic bags in old apple crates. The idea of this winemaking process (where in fact we don’t crush the berries at all) is to soften out the tannins. We processed the balance of the grapes in a fairly standard red winemaking fashion; crushed, fermented, pressed off skins into (predominantly older) oak before blending back to the ‘cab mac’ component and bottling.
Other Vintages
Technical Details
Picking Date: 13 and 18 February 2013
pH: 3.82
Alc/Vol: 14.0%
Bottling Date: 2 December 2013