Pyramid Valley North Canterbury Pinot Noir

Description

Pyramid Valley North Canterbury Pinot Noir is produced from grapes grown on New Zealand’s South Island close to Christchurch city. The region has a cool, dry climate with lots of sun and a long growing season. The Southern Alps to the west ensure low rainfall and long, dry autumns along with a high diurnal range help to create concentrated and expressive wines – particularly from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Pyramid Valley is one of New Zealand’s great wine estates where altitude, limestone, slope, rock and rich soils meet to produce profound Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The estate was founded by  Mike and Claudia Weersing who had spent 15 years searching the world to find the perfect place to grow grapes. In 2000, they purchased the plot of land near Waikari in North Canterbury. They worked the vineyards for nearly 20 years before selling to  Steve Smith MW (perhaps best known for establishing Craggy Range) and his business partner and wildlife conservationist Brian Sheth. Steve and Brian are building on the work done by the Weersings to fulfil the full potential of the site. In 2018 they purchased a second vineyard in Lowburn, Central Otago called Manata Estate, an established vineyard that has produced exceptional Pinot Noir since 2002.

The vineyards that Pyramid Valley North Canterbury Pinot Noir grapes come from have an average age of 15 years old and are planted on clay and gravel soils. The grapes are handpicked and are 70% de-stemmed with 30% whole bunches used in fermentation. The grapes are fermented in a combination of oak and stainless steel using natural vineyard yeasts. The wine is matured in French oak barrels, 20% of which are new, for 12 months.

Pyramid Valley vineyards are managed following the principals of biodynamic viticulture and the winemaking follows natural processes with the use of indigenous yeast, no additives, natural fining and little, if any, filtration.