Akitu Pinot Noir Blanc, Central Otago

Description

Akitu Pinot Noir Blanc is an intriguing white wine made from Pinot Noir grapes. This is known as a Blanc de Noirs, which refers to white wines made from red grape varieties – a term that is more commonly associated with Champagne or sparkling wines.

Akitu was established in 2001 by Central Otago native Andrew Donaldson. The estate is located in the Central Otago wine-growing region of New Zealand’s South Island. The estate is named Akitu meaning “Apex” in the Maori language and Donaldson’s vision was to produce just the very best Pinot Noir. Akitu is a relatively small estate consisting of just 12 hectares in the heart of Central Otago’s Upper Clutha basin. The 12 hectare vineyard sits alone at 380m above sea level on a stunning north-facing slope just minutes from Lake Wanaka. The vineyards are block planted in 6 sections on 250 million year old schist soils; Blocks A and B were planted in 2002 with the remainder the following year. There are approximately 41,000 vines of 6 carefully selected clones of Pinot Noir planted across the vineyard according to soil and aspect. This combined with a semi-continental climate with high sunshine hours, long summers and temperate autumns helps produce wines with great purity and complexity. Until the release of this Pinot Noir Blanc, there were just two other wines produced, both Pinot Noirs, the A1 and the A2.

The 100% Pinot Noir grapes for the Akitu Pinot Noir Blanc are hand-picked in the early hours of the morning and are transported straight to the winery for a very gentle whole bunch press cycle while the grapes are cold. This minimises colour pick-up and phenolic extraction from the skins and ensures plenty of juice solids to encourage lees complexity. No SO2 additions are made to ensure anthocyanin molecules are not bound up and released after fermentation. Cold settling then immediately off to ferment. Neutral yeast allows the fruit characters to express their character along with cool ferment to retain aromatics. Left on fine lees post ferment to build some palate texture.

The winemaker is PJ Charteris.