Fruit and Elegance: A Picture Book Pinot Noir of the New World
The Donaldson Family, founder of Pegasus Bay, was the pioneer of the Waipara Valley wine region in North Canterbury on New Zealand’s South Island 40 years ago. Today, the name Pegasus Bay stands for one of the most renowned New Zealand wineries and always convinces with outstanding wines. The grapes for this Pinot Noir come from north-facing vineyard terraces with good water permeability and barren structure. As a result, the 30-year-old vines, some of which are root-resistant, have particularly deep roots and provide excellent grape material with low yields. They are also protected from the breezes of the Pacific by their slipstream side and therefore there is a special mesoclimate. The vineyards are characterized by particularly warm days and very cool nights, which leads to an optimal ripeness of the grapes on the one hand and a good, natural acid structure on the other. The winemaking method for this Pinot Noir is the traditional Burgundian one. After the harvest, a quarter of the grapes were placed as a whole, uninjured in the fermentation vat, the rest destemmed on it. First, the grapes were macerated cold for a few days so that the soft, silky tannins of the grape skins were extracted. This was followed by a natural fermentation with two times a day immersion of the shells. After fermentation, the skins were left in the wine for a few more days to obtain an even more characterful tannin structure and strong color. Afterwards, the wine was carefully pressed and filled into 40% new, Burgundian barrique barrels. There he underwent a second, malolactic fermentation the following summer. The wine fractions of the different layers and clones were finally blended carefully after 18 months of maturation in barrels in order to obtain a wine that is as balanced and complex as possible, which is ideal for a long bottle maturation.
And this is how the Pegasus Bay Estate Pinot Noir 2017 tastes
Aromas of red fruits such as raspberry, cherry, plum and pomegranate immediately flow from the glass of Pegasus Bay Pinot Noir. These fresh scents are accompanied by earthy tones, game and olive tapenade, as well as black tea and rose hips. In the mouth you can immediately feel the incredible concentration and the fine, structured tannins, the fresh minerality and, in the long, focused finish, the straightforwardness and precision of this wine.