Mt Difficulty Pipeclay Terrace Pinot Noir 2009
Our Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs are made in limited quantities and are not produced every year. This vintage was distinctive showing classic Pipeclay Stella cherry and blackberry with a slight spice kick and lovely light violet florals. The wine displays a strong dark berry entry, which moves into a rich and sensuous mid-palate. The wine finishes strongly with a combination of fruit and finely grained structural tannin.2009 was a vintage with excellent flavour definition – intense cool varietal flavours with excellent concentration and typically high acidity providing lovely focus on the finish.
CELLARING POTENTIAL:
Mt Difficulty Pipeclay Terrace Pinot Noir will improve for 10 -15 years given optimal cellaring conditions.
Vintage:
A cooler vintage; the volume of the harvest was down 15% on average. Climatically there was a good start to the season, but December was slightly wetter than usual which reduced bunch numbers. A typically turbulent January was followed by a cooler, wet February which slowed down vine growth. Good canopy management was essential, with canopies left as open as possible to minimise the effects of the weather. Central Otago provided its usual long, fine, warm autumn but a week into vintage a cold spell brought on a cold response in the vines. This hurried the ripening process considerably, shortening and intensifying the season.
Vineyard:
The grapes for the wines that carry the Mt Difficulty label are subject to two strict criteria: they are managed under the umbrella of the Mt Difficulty viticultural team and must be sourced from vineyards situated in a very specific area - the South side of the Kawarau River at Bannockburn. Mt Difficulty Single Vineyard wines are even more site specific, created to express the terroir from which they come, and thus Mt Difficulty Pipeclay Terrace Pinot Noir is the essence of the vineyard itself. Pipeclay Terrace is made up of coarse, drought-prone Bannockburn soils and Scotland Point soils (impervious heavy clay). Bannockburn soils have a very low water holding capacity while the opposite is true of the Scotland Point soils, so irrigation systems have been designed to handle the very different requirements of each soil type. This vineyard is planted exclusively in Pinot Noir, with a wide variety of clones - 5, 6, 13, 113, 115, 667 and 777.
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