Jules Taylor OTQ Single Vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noir 2017

Jules Taylor OTQ Single Vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noir 2017"Distinctive, fruity and bold Pinot bouquet. Dark raspberry and even darker cherry aromas, plenty of toasty baking spice and wood aromas and a natural complexity envelopes the nose. Dry on the palate with flavours of brown spices and dark red berry fruits. Oaky with medium+ acidity, firm youthful tannins and light dried herb notes. Fleshy, fruity and dry. A youthful wine with firm textures that need time. Well made with medium+ length. Drink from 2019

"Distinctive, fruity and bold Pinot bouquet. Dark raspberry and even darker cherry aromas, plenty of toasty baking spice and wood aromas and a natural complexity envelopes the nose. Dry on the palate with flavours of brown spices and dark red berry fruits. Oaky with medium+ acidity, firm youthful tannins and light dried herb notes. Fleshy, fruity and dry. A youthful wine with firm textures that need time. Well made with medium+ length. Drink from 2019 through 2024" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier

"Full, even ruby-red colour with purple hues, a little lighter on the edge, youthful in appearance. The nose is elegantly presented with a tight core of sweetly ripe dark-red and black cherry and berry fruit and subtle nuances of black plums. Some sweet spices, herbs and nutty oak complexes the aromatics, unfolding dark-red and violet floral elements. Medium-full bodied, the palate has sweetly rich and plush flavours of ripe dark-red and black berried fruit, along with plums, and subtle herbal elements with nutty, spicy oak, and florals, adding detail and interest. The fruit is supported by grainy tannin extraction and grip, with balanced, background acidity. The fruit sweetness and structure are harmonious and carry the wine to a long and sustained, firm finish. This is a sweetly rich and plush, dark-red and black-fruited Pinot Noir with balanced fruit, structure and freshness. Serve with lamb, beef and venison dishes over the next 6 years. Hand-picked fruit from the ‘Wrekin’ vineyard, Brancott Valley, destemmed and indigenous yeast fermented to 13.5% alc., the wine aged 11 months in 33% new French oak barriques" Raymond Chan, Aug 2018

This Pinot Noir exudes powerful aromas of blackberries, black cherry and plum. Smokey suggestions from the oak are layered over earthy tones and a hint of baking spice. This Pinot Noir is juicy, fleshy and medium - full bodied on the palate, with wonderfully impressive primary flavours of blackberries, boysenberries and black doris plums. The wine has complexity with well-integrated oak and velvety tannins and provides tones of nuances of kalamata olive and red beetroot. For optimum flavour decant for 20 minutes.

An averagely dry winter turned into spring, budburst started well with very few frosts and a fairly even push. Flowering was cooler at the start of the period, but warmed up nicely, due to these good flowering conditions, berry set was very even, providing a very small block of incredibly rich fruit. A large number of rain meant the season was running late, but the period after veraison was followed by some warmer sunnier weather in the new year leading up to harvest. The Pinot was hand harvested in two parts, late March and early April with the smallest berries at the Wrekin vineyard being harvested first. There is a lot of vigour and variation in the fruit due to the hilly nature of the blocks these were grown, which results in a broader flavour profile.

The grapes for this Pinot Noir were grown in the quaint and rustic Wrekin Vineyard which lies in the Brancott valley. Positioned on northwestern facing slopes with deep clay soils, this charming little vineyard was carefully managed to provide very low-yield and high quality crop. The intensely flavoured fruit was hand harvested in late March, then destemmed into small open top fermenters and cold soaked for 10 days. The same happened with the portion pciked in April. The wine then wild fermented with indigenous yeast, gentle hand plunging during the fermentation ensured gentle extraction of tannins and colour. After some time on skins and extended maceration, Jules pressed off the wine into a combination of new and old French oak where a full malolactic fermentation took place. Here it matured for 11 months. Just prior to the 2017 vintage, Jules removed the wine from oak, gave it a light egg white fining and bottled it.

The OTQ Series is a pure expression of Jules’ winemaking skills and her vision to create wines which speak of their place. Selected bunches of fruit from Meadowbank Estate were hand harvested, fermented with indigenous yeast and aged in French oak barrels. The resultant wine exhibits elegant and rich with stone-fruits tied harmoniously with tones of intense patisserie and toasty oak, held together with brilliant acids and a medium to full body.

On the Quiet - Secret squirrel and hard to get your hands on, these drops are pure indulgence. Crafted to challenge the conventional winemaking interpretations of Marlborough’s signature varieties, Jules Taylor’s OTQ wines are getting louder every day.

Food Pairing: Suited well to wild game such as duck, boar and venison. Mushrooms and eggplant compliment well as vegetarian options.