THE BONELINE WAIMANU PINOT NOIR 2021

Winery notes (2021 Vintage)
"Medium ruby heart with red hue. Aromas of ripe red cherries and plums, underneath are wild raspberries and freshly crushed currants.  Classic forest undergrowth, clove, dark spice, and bramble notes surround the fruit while purple florals give everything a lift. An alive palate of fresh dark red fruits, fine grained tannin, well integrated oak. The structure is built around a gentle core of acidity which give freshness to the wine and is capped off with an oyster shell reprise that resonates.

All our Pinot Noir is hand harvested and sorted.  We pick each clone separately, and they stay separate until final blending. The fruit for the 2019 harvest was all destemmed, without crushing into small open top fermenters. The fruit was ambient soaked until natural fermentation commenced before a selected yeast strain was inoculated to carry on and finish the fermentation. During this time, the ferments were gently worked with various techniques to ensure that tannin extraction was respectful to the natural fruit weight and intensity. Total time on skins for this vintage was between 21 and 30 days. Parcels were then run to barrel taking only light lees, we refrained from using much new oak (16%) and a slightly higher percentage of 1 year old oak (26%), this was to ensure respect was shown to the fruit. The barrels are racked clean, the wine put together in late February and returned to old barrels for a further 5 months (15 month in oak) before being lightly filtered pre-bottling."

Rated Outstanding & 95/100 Cameron Douglas MS, March 2025 (2021 Vintage)
"Great colour, great bouquet, attractive and enticing scents of site first then purple cherry flesh and black currant, there’s a silty fine soil quality then scents of barrel spices and wood smoke adding complexity and depth. Dry, intense, textured and varietal on the palate, a wine that reflects its site and winemaking with textures and flavours of plums and cherry flesh, dried herb and a fine flinty leesy complexity. Tannins and acidity are in abundance and this accentuates the dried herb layer – though I expect this will settle as the wine develops in bottle. A lengthy finish, new, well made and ready drink from 2029 through 2039+."