Vintage 2015 - Thursday 2nd April: Sun & Moon

It is the first day of Pinot processing today and it’s all hands to the crusher-destemmer as we receive some of the best Pinot from our Raupo vineyard out in the Omaka Valley. 

This first fruit picked is destined to become our 2015 Sun & Moon, so it's an exciting day for us all and arguably the one that sets the tone for all the other Pinot to come. 

All our Pinot, regardless of for which wine it is destined, is handled exactly the same way. Everything is hand-picked, with our expert team selecting and sorting in the vineyard. The fruit then comes into the winery and is chilled slightly before being destemmed. The fruit is then put into an open-topped fermenter and after a little bit of time to sit and steep, it is warmed gently to encourage natural ferment. During the fermentation, we manually punch down the caps to keep the skins wet.

After this, we leave the wine on its skins for around two-three weeks. This post-ferment maceration is relatively unusual here and enables us to extract the delicious savoury characters that we desire in our Pinot Noirs.  Only after that is the wine drained from the tank, gently pressed and put into french oak barrels for maturation.