Description

Vineyard

The Kooyong vineyard is located on the Mornington Peninsula at Tuerong, on Miocene sedimentary soils. Their wines are made from domain grown, handpicked grapes and aim to manifest terroir: the integration of our geology and soils with the macroclimate of the region, the mesoclimates of the various sites within their vineyard and the weather of the annual grape growing season. Their cultural operations in the vineyard and practices in the winery endeavour to articulate these unique characteristics diligently, respectfully and without artifice.

Vintage

Following a wet Winter, budburst commenced relatively late in mid-September. The Winter rainfall set up the vineyards well for Spring with overall temperatures during Spring slightly higher than average accompanied by below average rainfall. Flowering commenced mid late November with ideal weather conditions, resulting in one of the best fruit sets in many years.

The mild to warm conditions continued throughout Summer and veraison commenced in mid-January. Harvest delivered fruitful crop loads matched with very stable weather conditions, ensuring vine performance and good ripeness. Picking commenced late February and the viticultural team worked steadily until the beginning of April delivering outstanding fruit. The white wines display excellent acidity, depth and intense fruit flavours. The red wines look poised and elegant with powerful aromatics and a great balance between tannin and acid.

Tating Notes (April 2019)

Kooyong Estate Pinot Noir comprises fruit from there Meres, Haven and Ferrous blocks.

It offers an overall expression of the Kooyong vineyard, with parcels of fruit from various soils and mesoclimates blended together to create the Estate label. Year after year the same parcels are consistently chosen, giving this wine an underlying likeness across vintages. The fruit was fermented in a combination of large-format oak foudre, large-format concrete tanks and stainless steel tanks. Fermentation commenced spontaneously with ambient yeasts, included a proportion of whole bunches and lasted 16 to 18 days. Following fermentation, the wine was pressed and racked into French oak barriques (20% of which were new), puncheons and foudre and underwent indigenous malolactic fermentation. The maturation period was 12 months. The wine was then bottled without fining and with minimal filtration.

The wine opens with heady aromas of pomegranate, black cherry, violet and baking spice. Weighty and powerful, the palate offers flavours of morello cherry, cranberry and an earthy blood orange character. Underlying this is a tight line of very fine grain tannin and a silky mid-palate that deliver tightness and length. This wine will greatly reward mid-term cellaring.

13.5% alc.