Tohu Awatere Valley Pinot Noir 2019

A bright ruby hue in the glass, this Awatere Valley Pinot Noir displays aromatic layers of red fruit and spicy florals with hints of crushed herbs. The palate is smoothly textured with flavours of bright cherry, red berries and finely integrated French oak. Mid-weight on the palate, this wine is balanced with refined silky tannins that lead to a long and elegant finish.

With a cooler and drier climate than other parts of Marlborough, the growing season in the Awatere Valley is longer, and is ripening slower. Combine this with dry, free-draining soil – an important feature of the terroir in Awatere – and the result is intensely flavoured fruit and exceptional wines.

Select blocks from around the Awatere Valley are harvested using modern machine harvesters that allow ultimate extraction of flavour and aroma compounds from the skins of the grapes.

Grapes for this wine are handpicked at optimal ripeness before being transported back to the winery for processing. Once at the winery the fruit is gently destemmed and then lightly crushed using state of the art processing equipment. Batch fermented according to block and clone in small open top fermenters, the must undergoes a cold soak lasting around 7 days before being warmed and inoculated either with selected yeasts or left to undergo a ‘wild’ ferment using indigenous yeasts found naturally on the grapes. Once fermentation is complete the wine undergoes a short period of post-fermentation maturation on skins before being pressed directly to a combination old and new French barriques. These barrels are kept cool in a temperature-controlled cellar over the winter months, before being warmed in spring, allowing the wine to undergo a secondary malolactic fermentation. Barrels are carefully monitored over this period and once the malolactic fermentation is determined to be 100% complete the final blend is carefully put together before being filtered and bottled in late March.

Once fermentation is complete the wine undergoes a short period of post-fermentation maturation on skins before being pressed directly to a combination old and new French barriques. These barrels are kept cool in a temperature-controlled cellar over the winter months, before being warmed in spring, allowing the wine to undergo a secondary malolactic fermentation. Barrels are carefully monitored over this period and once the malolactic fermentation is determined to be 100% complete the final blend is carefully put together before being filtered and bottled in late March.

Portobello mushrooms, bacon on sourdough bruschetta with roasted garlic and drizzled truffle oil.