Rochford Wines

Rochford Macedon Ranges Pinot Noir

Vintage
2006

Varieties
100% Pinot Noir (A blend of 4 clones, MV6, 114, 115, G5V15 and 777).

Tasting Notes
This wine is mid plum in colour. The nose shows dark cherry fruit combined with spice and mocha oak. The palate and full flavoured and shows good varietal definition, which is enhanced with spicy oak characters. The grape and oak tannins add power to the palate that will ensure medium term cellaring. The wine finishes with a good persistence of flavour and good acidity.

Cellaring
4 to 6 year

Winemaking
When making Pinot Noir we try to keep things as simple as possible and let the vineyard characters do all of the talking. After de-stemming and chilling the fruit was cold soaked for 7 days before the addition of a pure yeast culture. The wine was fermented for a further 7 days. During the cold-soak period colour and flavour are extracted in an aqueous solution, while the extraction of hard tannins is avoided. At about 1 degree Baume two thirds of the wine was transferred to new oak barrels where it completed it’s fermentation. This gives good integration of the new oak and provides additional complexity. The balance of the wine was pressed at dryness, settled for 2 to 3 days to remove large solids, and then racked into oak for malo lactic fermentation. After malo lactic fermentation the wine was left to settle, racked, then returned to oak for a further 12 months maturation. The wine has not been fined but did receive a light filtration prior to bottling.

Viticultural Notes
The early part of the 2005/2006 growing season was warm to hot but this changed quickly in mid March to being very cool and showery. This weather persisted for the balance of the ripening period. The resulted was extended ripening with good flavour development but slightly lower acidy than normal. The fruit was hand picked between the 1st and 24th April.

Technical Data
Alcohol 13.5%
pH 3.66
Titratable acidity 6.5 grams per litre
Residual sugar 0.2 grams per litre

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