BABICH WINEMAKERS' RESERVE PINOT NOIR 2002
Overview:
The warm days and cool nights that Marlborough is well known for are ideal for the Pinot Noir grape. An early ripening variety, it benefits from the warm days, high sunshine hours and cool nights that develop intense flavour while maintaining balanced acidity in the fruit.
Grapes:
100% Pinot Noir
Region:
Marlborough
Winemaker:
Adam Hazeldine
Recommended Food:
A perfect partner to lamb, cubed and casseroled with crushed tomatoes and slivered onions, also delicious with a classic roast duck dinner.
Recommended Cellaring:
1-4 years
Production Notes :
The grapes, a blend of five different clones, (clone 5, 667, 777, 114 and 115), were hand harvested in late March early April when physiologically ripe. They were then crushed into small open vats. After a period of cold soaking, 3-4 days, the must was inoculated and fermented at 28-30 degrees C. Frequent hand plunging over the initial ferment period ensured the gentle extraction of colour and tannin. At the completion of ferment the wine was run off into a blend of new and old French oak to undergo malo-lactic fermentation. The wine stayed on lees in barrel for 10 months. The separate batches were then assessed and blended.
Tasting Notes:
An attractively rich bouquet redolent with cherry-spice and earthy notes is combined with a warm, soft palate full of intense berry fruit and a complex and lingering earthy-smokiness. Nicely balanced and very approachable.
Awards:
GOLD MEDAL
-International Wine Challenge of Asia, 2004
Reviews:
"Lightly coloured with an oak/cedar wood nose. Sweetish fruit and plenty of alcohol on the palate, partnered by a warm finish."
-Tizwine.com Tasting Panel, August, 2003
"Is fragrant with charming ripe fruit and oodles of spicy oak, and a good texture. Good drinking now and will develop over the next year or so."
-Charmian Smith, Otago Daily Times, 10th August, 2003
"This is every bit the grown-up Pinot Noir with an accessible price that we are all searching for. It has gentle soft fruit tannins and a sweet plummy taste with a dry finish. Love it."
-Joelle Thomson, NZ Herald - Viva, August, 2003
"Bouquet of cherries and smokey oak, savoury on the palate with plum and mushroom flavours and light tannins. Balanced pinot, quite forward, with agreeable interest and finish. For now and the next few years."
-Graeme Barrow, The Northern Advocate, 13th September, 2003
"The 2002 vintage was grown at three sites in the Wairau valley and matured for nine months in French oak cases. Ruby-hued, with a fragrant, cherryish, toasty bouquet, it is harmonious and supple, although not concentrated, with ripe cherry and plum flavours and good balance and complexity. Drink now onwards."
-Michael Cooper, Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines 2004
"Light in colour and medium in palate weight style, slightly feral on the nose and earthy with the intrigue and mystique of Pinot, sweet underlying strawberry and guava, tamarillo and spicy on the long savoury finish. The sweetness of the fruit comes out to linger and the finish is lifted and long with a lingering muskiness."
-Sue Courtney, www.wineoftheweek.com, March, 2004
"An aromatic wine with some gamey, forest floor aromas. A soft supple palate with an appealing texture and a long finish."
-WineNZ Magazine, Tasting Panel, June, 2004
"Bold, well-spined and serious Marlborough Pinot Noir; quite a weighty wine for this variety and region while young and with much more to unfold over the next year. Quite a big wine."
-Peter Saunders, F&B Magazine, August, 2004
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