Lyme Bay Pinot Noir 2021, Devon

This English red wine is the colour of black cherries with lighter edge tones. The nose has intense, red fruit combined with smoky, vanilla oak and mild tobacco overtones. The palate presents red stone fruit notes of cherry & plum, blackcurrant, strawberry & toasty oak to give a rich, but balanced weight on the palate and a mouth-watering finish that lingers.

A beautiful, long, hot summer in 2020 enabled the grapes to fully ripen on the vine, resulting in intensity of flavour and body. Harvested between 3rd-20th October 2020 from Dijon & Spätburgunder still wine clones only, each clone from each identified vineyard underwent its own specific protocol. Small batch fermentations were undertaken with manual pigéage (punch downs) to gently maximise the extraction of colour, flavour and structure. The wine was then transferred to barrel for 100% malolactic fermentation and ageing. 30% new French oak was used as well as experimental American and Eastern European oak. Aged for 9 months in barrel, the batches were then blended and left to settle for 2 weeks before bottling.

The wine has no fining or filtration to retain the delicate nuances of the fruit and oak. It demonstrates forward primary fruit character synonymous with young vines that will develop in intensity and potential even further with time.