'Walker Bay' Pinot Noir 2018

A rich vintage with some complexity. Layered with red fruits; the warm, rich spice and woody notes mingle with earthy mushroom and dried flower characters. The generous and polished palate is gripped with fine, chalky tannins. Ripe raspberry fruit provides some flesh to the mid palate, with long savoury liquorice flavour in the finish.

A more moderate season compared to the previous 3 years, with fewer extremes of temperature spikes and water stress, allowing more consistency for the vines. The preceding winter produced adequate rain and cold temperatures that held out through August to allow for later budding in early September, not seen since 2014. The rise in temperature was gradual and though the rainfall was not abundant, we were rewarded with timely rain events towards the end of vegetative growth and again before harvest. Colour development in the early red varieties were problematic, requiring a few rounds of green harvesting to secure concentration and tannin development in what would become superbly supple and seamless wines.