2009 Pinotage

$29.95 NZD

Stunning, slightly gamey bouquet with a smooth, berryish, peppery palate. Very small quantity available. So be quick!!!!

Technical Notes Expand

Harvest

Hand harvested 2 lot on April 16^th, 2009. Selected fruit only. Destemmed using gravity into small open top fermenters.

Brix: 26

TA: 8 g/l

pH: 3.65

Yield: 2.4 kg per vine or 5T/ha

Cellar & Bottling

Pre fermentation cold soak for six days. Fermentation started after about 7 days. Total time on skins 25 days. Pressed, and settled for 4 days before racking to barrels. Full malolactic in barrel. Aged in barrel for fifteen months before racking, blending and bottling without filtration. Bottled on July 22^nd, 2010.

RS: <0.5g/L

TA: 6.5 g/L

pH: 3.65

Alcohol: 15.5%

The Wine

In 2000 the quality of our Pinotage surprised us – so did the alcohol level at 15.3%! In 2001 we aimed for a lower alcohol and produced a lesser wine which we declassified to the Laborare (not a bad drop, though). We feel the following vintages have been back on track – rich and ripe and complex it shows that New Zealand is the true home of Pinotage.

This is a big, structured wine packed with fruit but also showing some complex game and tobacco flavours – not for the fainthearted. To find out more about Pinotage check out the Pinotage club www.pinotage.org a great website full of information and tasting notes run by people who are obviously “Passionate about Pinotage.”

We rarely move our wine and when possible movements are by gravity or pressure to reduce the effect of pumping. This wine will benefit from decanting about half an hour before serving.

To ensure quality and uniformity this wine is a single batch bottled under a screw cap closure. We regard bottle and batch variation as unacceptable “things of the past”.

Organic – Since 2007 Muddy Water’s estate vineyards have been farmed organically – we will achieve full organic certification for both the vineyard and winery on October 1st 2010

Reviews

Goodness, Pinotage is a rare grape in New Zealand now. I have had more disappointing Pinotages, from New Zealand and South Africa, over the last three decades of tasting wines than ones that staisfied. However, this is impressive. The bouquet is ripe and perfumed, displaying red/black plum, spice, game and cedar characters. It's medium-full-bodied on the palate with lovely persistent flavours and supple tannins. The wine is youthful and pristine, yet shows lovely complexity and layers flavours. At its best now until 2016

Wine Orbit, Sam Kim, March 2011

'Not for the faint-hearted' (in the winery's words), this is typically a robust red, full of personality. The 2009 (****) is a top vintage. Matured for over a year in French oak casks (20% new), it's like a good Cotes-du-Rhone, combining power and charm. Full-coloured, mouthfilling and supple, with vibrant, sweet-fruit flavours of cherries and plums, and a hint of liquorice, it is deliciously fruity and smooth, in a graceful style with excellent complexity and depth.

Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide to NZ Wines, 2011