Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2023

Central Otago has become a hotspot for premium Pinot Noir, second only to Burgundy, and Felton Road’s wines are a large part of the reason. While committing to biodynamic practices and low-intervention winemaking, they make pure single-vineyard expressions of Pinot Noir, Riesling and Chardonnay.

Stewart Elms, was the man who in 1991 identified the north-facing slopes at the end of Felton Road as being an ideal spot for premium viticulture. It was Stewart that first planted vines on the property, but Nigel Greening who later bought the original vineyard and combined it with three others close by in Bannockburn.

Felton Road now exports to approximately 40 countries and are frequently ranked high up in the Drinks International magazine’s ""World’s Most Admired Wine Brands"" list, and their wines have become world-renowned and highly sought-after by sommeliers, collectors and critics alike.

Fruit came from all four of Felton Road’s vineyards: Cornish Point, Calvert, MacMuir, and The Elms. Harvest commenced on 23rd March 2023, and the grapes gently de-stemmed into open top fermenters without pumping, retaining 20% as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately long maceration on skins extracted a good colour and tanning with considerable depth of flavour. The wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and malolactic. It was aged from 13 months in French oak barrels ( 25% new), before bottling unfined and unfiltered.