There’s a consuming vibrancy to the 2017 10X Pinot Noir, the limpid freshness of the bright raspberry fruit making for a lively wine of fruit purity, complete with a hint of meaty complexity on the back palate. An immediately enjoyable and more-ish Pinot with more layers waiting to unfurl in bottle.
Wine Profile
Vintage
Following an average rainfall and relatively warm winter, it was again the spring weather leading up to flowering which caused issues. October was our third wettest on record (96mm v 62mm average) and November saw our second coldest maximum and minimum temperatures (19.3° v 20.9°, 9.6° v 10.9°), consequently the budburst interval (budburst-flowering) was our longest ever – 87 days v an average of 75 days – and flowering was our latest ever (5 December v our 21 November average). In the end, due to the excellent February and March, hang time (budburstharvest) was average – 205 days v an average of 204 days – and harvest date was close to average – 1 April v an average of 29 March. Yields are down because of the problems around flowering but summer and early autumn saw long, slow ripening – perfect for our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Vineyards :: Clones
Winebar (48%), Osborn (23%), Spedding (16%), Wallis (13%) :: D1V7 (100%)
Harvest date :: Yield
Hand picked 7-23 March 2017 :: 4.2 tonnes/ha (1.7 t/acre, ~25.2hl/ha)
Brix :: pH :: TA
22.8-23.4° (12.7-13.0° Baumé) :: 3.25-3.37 :: 6.1-7.1 g/l
Winemaking
Grapes hand-harvested through mid March and transferred to press via gravity before being whole bunch pressed and the unsettled juice fermented by indigenous yeasts in old 228 litre French oak barrels. A 9 month aging in barrel with no bâtonnage to keep wines fresher and more taut. Natural partial (10%) malolactic fermentation before bottling lightly fined and filtered.
Winemakers
Sandro Mosele, Martin Spedding
Aging :: Oak
9 months :: old 228 litre French oak barrels
Malolactic
Partial (10%)
Residual sugar
Dry (0.8 g/l)
Finished pH :: TA
3.28 :: 6.7 g/l
Alcohol
13.5% (8.0 standard drinks/750ml bottle)
Production
703 dozen :: bottled 6 December 2017 :: screwcap
Release date
June 2018
TASTING NOTES
A particularly gentle edition of the 10X Pinot Gris that emphasises freshness and delicacy, featuring a kiss of white peach fruit, and a subtle and refined palate. It’s perhaps a quieter wine this year, but with a sense that the reserved palate will unfurl further in the bottle as it gains weight. Certainly a fresh and long style all the same.
Andrew Graham [May 2018, commissioned by TMBT]
Food :: Temperature
A cold chicken salad – something not too heavy. Serve at 10–13°C.
Best drinking
2018-2023
