
2013 Charteris The Winter Vineyard Pinot Noir (Museum Release)
Picked on 8th and 18th April 2013.
The Winter Vineyard is 0.9 Hectares split over 2 terraces on the Felton Road end of Bannockburn and runs down to the Kawarau River. Dijon 115, Abel and 777 clones make up the wine.
This wine is firstly a wine from an idiosyncratic site in Bannockburn and secondly a reflection of vintage. This block has always given me a finer boned, delicate style in Pinot. More savoury than primary, more lacy edged than block buster. The 2013 vintage has given some opulence to the structure but the tannin base of the wine still retains a clear stamp of this vineyard for me. As we have talked about stem inclusion for me is about structure as opposed to an aromatic feature. The great bouquet that results from stem inclusion comes with maturity on the wine rather than dominating in youth for me.
2013 gave me more natural skin tannin to work with so I backed off the stems to approx 20%. I think I may well look back on this wine in 5 to 10 years and ask why I didn't put more in the cellar. Lucky for you I did and we have a museum offering.