Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir

Description

Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir is a red wine from Central Otago. It is a blend of wines from the estate’s four vineyards: Cornish Point, Calvert, MacMuir and The Elms.

The Felton Road Winery is located in Central Otago, the southernmost wine-growing region of New Zealand’s South Island. The winery is renowned for its high-quality wines, particularly Pinot Noir. Established in 1991, the winery is situated in the Bannockburn sub-region, known for its unique terroir, characterized by its warm, dry climate and diverse soil types.

Extensive studies by Stewart Elms in 1991 (hence the Elm tree logo) demonstrated that the north-facing slopes at the end of Felton Road in Bannockburn are among the warmest and most suitable locations in Central Otago for producing quality wines. The decision was informed by heat summation data and soil maps created during the Clyde Dam’s construction. The area features three distinct soil types that are well-draining and low in fertility, which, along with the region’s unique climate, create optimal conditions for producing high-quality Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Riesling.

Felton Road is committed to organic and biodynamic farming practices. The winery is certified organic and focuses on sustainability, ensuring minimal intervention in both the vineyard and winery. The vineyards are managed by viticulturist Gareth King and his team. Careful summer management of the vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy promotes uniform and early fruit ripening. Manual techniques such as shoot thinning, positioning, leaf plucking, and bunch thinning are employed to achieve the highest quality fruit. A variety of cover crops is grown between rows to manage vine vigour, enhance soil health, and boost biodiversity. In the drier sections of the vineyard, they use mulch to retain moisture, reducing the need for irrigation, and balancing lighter, well-draining soils. The winery also produces organic compost from all its organic winery waste, combined with organic cow manure and straw, to enrich the soil naturally. The estate is also fully organic and biodynamic viticulture (BioGro
and Demeter certified).

The grapes for the Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir arrive at the unique gravity flow winery and are gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping, retaining 20% as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with moderately long maceration on skins has extracted good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This wine was aged for 13 months in 25% new French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In accordance with Felton Road’s non-interventionalist approach to winemaking, this wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and malolactic fermentation and was not fined or filtered.