MUDDY WATER PINOT NOIR 2018

Winery notes (2018 Vintage)
"Our Estate Pinot Noir is the mainstay of our Pinot Noir range. Stylistically it's a nod towards Old Europe, with more reserve, layers and complexity than typical New Zealand pinots. A wine of delicate proportions and nuance, it's more about restraint than power. A sleek and elegant texture yields to flavours more floral and earth-driven than fruit-heavy.

Our Estate Pinot Noir is blended from eight different vine types, most of which are grown on our hillside block on ungrafted roots. These vines are younger, newer clones than our Slowhand and Hare's Breath, although in some years we include a bit of Slowhand or Hare's Breath fruit into the blend.

Deep red cherry in colour with a dark savoury nose of ripe cherry and herbs. Palate shows considerable power and earthy character with masses of plum, dark berry and a mineral cherry edge. Robust fruit tannin provides an inner strength that is long and alluring."

4 ½ Stars Michael Cooper (2018 Vintage)
"The 2018 vintage was matured for 14 months in French oak barriques (39 per cent new), and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Ruby-hued, it is a floral, supple, youthful red, with complex, savoury, nutty flavours and a lengthy, harmonious finish. Best drinking 2022+. Certified organic."

Rated Excellent & 94/100 Cameron Douglas MS, August 2020 (2018 Vintage)
"There’s no mistaking the youthful energy in the bouquet – aromas of ripe dark red cherries and plums then numerous wild berries and dried herb savoury scents. There’s an abundance of oak aroma as well with dark spices and new toasty wood aromas. On the palate too these fruit and wood ideas turn into intensity and freshness then flavours that reflect the nose. Firm tannins and plenty of acidity, warming alcohol and a core of energy. A rather young wine still needing some cellar time to really settle in and begin to evolve. Lengthy finish and needing food if you open before 2022. Best drinking from later in 2022 through 2028+."

Reviews for the 2017 vintage below…

93/100 Mike Bennie, The Wine Front, August 2020 (2017 Vintage)
"Bold pinot noir of deep flavour and spicy, twiggy-toasty-cedary characters meshed to dark cherry, brooding blackberry and violet floral notes. A good swish of flinty tannin announces itself early takes control of the wine, finishing lightly bitter and a little puckering. Shape, structure, seriousness. A wine of pedigree and depth with oak a calling card at a level perhaps a bit too much for me (only 30% new, I believe, but it shows), but will please many. For those seeking some direct action from pinot noir, power and finesse perhaps."