Meerlust Pinot Noir 2020

Intense, vivid opaque youthful purple-ruby appearance. The wine shows pronounced lifted floral perfume on the nose with a brooding and seductive dark berry fruit, musk, wild mushrooms and hints of iron, savoury richness and spice and an intense vibrant minerality.

On the palate there are very pure Pinot fruit flavours on entry with red cherry and musk flavours coupled with fresh acidity. The wine has layered complexity with great elegance and finesse. Very fine lacy, almost powdery tannin on the finish.

Up to 2023 provided wine is stored in ideal cellar conditions.

White and red meats, duck, Parma ham, grilled line fish, tuna, wild mushrooms and traditional cheeses.

Selected from 3 clones of Pinot Noir with an average age of 22 years old, situated on loamy gravel topsoil with clay sub-soil. A new block, namely A08 offered us its first yield for making the 2020.

30% vendage vert (green harvesting cluster removal) at 60% veraison to ensure concentration and even ripening.

Grapes were handpicked and selected in the coolness of morning before 100% of the whole bunches were manually transferred to tanks. Partial un-innoculated fermentation took place with careful pigeage twice daily before pressing directly into French oak tight grained Hogsheads for malo-lactic fermentation.  25% of the wine raised in a new 2500 L French oak foudre, with the balance being matured in 60% new tight grain Allier oak and 40% second-fill 300 liter casks.