Lucy's Choice Pinot Noir 2011
Winemaker: Anthony Miceli
Picked: 25/4/11-7/5/11
Bottled: 7/4/13
Winemaking: Hand picked and crushed into open fermenters in small batches, fermented relatively warm (max 30-32 deg) in with: part wild yeast ferment, part extended maceration prior to ferment, part extended maceration after ferment, part barrel fermentation, part cool ferment. Then matured in barrel for nearly 2 years with prolonged contact with fermentation lees, and minimal racking.
Oak: 25% new and 75 % 2-4 years old, 100% French oak.
Analysis: Alc 13.5 pH 3.55 T/A 6.0 Residual sugar: 0.19 g/l
Vintage:
The 2011 Lucy’s Choice Pinot Noir shows how with enough care and attention to detail and skill it is possible even in a “difficult” year to produce great wines. The style is a little less full bodied than usual for us but still has a very attractive brilliant red colour, great depth of flavour and suppleness at a only slightly lower alcohol. The small scale of our operation enabled us to do the critical tasks such as spraying leaf plucking etc. in the small windows of suitable weather available. And we could have the courage to wait for the right time and then pick quickly with our long term skilled gang of workers, using ruthless selection to exclude unsuitable grapes. I compare this wine to our 2005, in the more delicate style, which we tasted a month ago and showed magnificently, with lovely fruit and colour showing richness and still youthful, with a long way to go.
Tasting Notes:
A lively light red with deceptive richness and flavour.
Brilliant light red, with lively strawberry fruit, spice, earthiness and well integrated subtle oak.. The palate is medium bodied, with great length and persistence of flavour.
Lucy is our eldest daughter, and it is with pride that her name is given to this wine.
This wine benefits from the maturity of the vineyard, our cool maritime climate, our dedicated approach to winemaking, two years maturation in oak, and further time in bottle.
Great with lamb, game, duck and a range of rich pasta dishes. Serving temperature 16-20 deg, do not chill.
Cellaring: Drinking beautifully, with extended barrel ageing, this wine will still improve with a further 5+ years. Benefits from breathing after opening and do not serve chilled.
Winemaker’s Note:
Contrary to the opinion of many Australians, this variety cannot show its true value without prolonged maturation, particularly from our cool climate (we pick at comparable times to Burgundy).
Do not underestimate this variety, when grown in the cool, even, conditions it relishes, and given time, and sympathetic winemaking, it will show the depth and subtlety worthy of the most noble of all red varieties!
Lucy is our eldest daughter, and it is with pride, that her name is given to this wine.