Pinot Noir

Enjoy this Pinot Noir with smoked duck breast, grilled portabello mushrooms and rack of venison.

Cloudy Bay Vineyards established in 1985 is today a partnership between champagne house Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and co-founder of Cape Mentelle Vineyards in Western Australia David Hohnen. The Cloudy Bay team is committed to producing 'wines of region' and strives to enhance the pure bracing flavors naturally afforded by the climate and soils of Marlborough. The winery and vineyards are situated in the Wairau Valley in Marlborough at the northern end of New Zealand's South Island. This unique and cool wine region enjoys a maritime climate with the longest hours of sunshine of any place in New Zealand. Cloudy Bay has estate vineyards located at prime sites within the Wairau Valley and long-term supply agreements with five Wairau Valley growers. The main varieties grown are Sauvignon Blanc Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Our Pinot Noir comes from the cool clay soils and rolling, northfacing slops of Marlborough's Southern Valleys region. The aged alluvial gravels and dense clay subsoils balance drainage and water availability to yield the region's best Pinot Noir grapes. With over 30 years of experience with the variety in this region, our sites are selected carefully and each vineyard tended with care. The vines are trained with vertical shoot positioning to make the most of the sunlight. The key vineyards for this variety are Mustang, Delta, and Barracks.

After fermentation the wines were matured in French oak for 11 months, of which 30% was new.

The Pinot Noir fruit was gravity-fed into the open topped fermentation tanks, with 7% whole-bunch inclusion. The skins were gently plunged, with an average of 21 days' skin contact, and then 100% of the wine underwent malolactic fermentation.