Our Wine
Our philosophy is to allow nature and seasonal variations to be expressed in the wine. Intervention is kept to a minimum enabling the natural character of the fruit to be developed over a 12 month period in french oak barrels.
The fruit is estate grown and managed for low yields of up to 1.5 tonne per acre. The grapes are hand picked, de-stemmed and fermented in open stainless steel vats. Utmost attention is given to the juice during fermentation including regular, day and night hand plunging. The wine is then very gently pressed and placed into a balanced proportion of new and old french oak.
Maleolactic fermentation occurs naturally during Spring after which the wine is lightly sulphured. The finished wine is selected as the best blend of barrels; it is bottled just prior to the following vintage and released approximately 6 months later.
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2008 Pierrepoint Chardonnay |
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Harvest timing was determined by flavour rather than Baume. The fruit was hand-picked early on a cool morning then whole-bunch pressed to barrel. The juice then sat in quality French oak, 25% of which was new, until spontaneous indigenous yeast ferment began. Ferment temperatures were held below 22 °C to maintain fruitful expression in the finished wine. The yeast lees were stirred weekly for 2 months post ferment and approximately 20% of the wine underwent secondary malolactic fermentation. The wine spent a total of 9 months in barriques on yeast lees prior to racking, protein and cold stabilising and sterile filtration to bottle. |
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In the glass this wine has a brilliant, green tinged-straw appearance. The nose delivers a complex bouquet with fruit aromas reminiscent of mandarin, rockmelon and peach. These primary aromas are balanced with a mealy, hazelnut-cashew barrel ferment character. When tasted the promised bouquet is delivered as a generous lively flavour, underpinned by a supple natural acid thread that keeps the wine fresh, focussed and fine. Barrel fermentation has contributed subtle textural qualities. Great minerally length and balance are key attributes. |
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2007 Pierrepoint Shiraz |
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This fine wine was sourced from the Henty Wine Region as a result of the 2007 Pierrepoint vintage yielding a very small quantity of Pinot Noir grapes, as a “one off”, in order to protect our oak barrels. Harvest timing was determined by flavour rather than Baume. The fruit was hand-picked early on a cool morning, destemmed and barely crushed in small open fermentors. The juice was inoculated and fermentation took place over one week reaching temperatures up to 32C. Once dry, the juice was pressed away from skins in to quality French oak, 25% of which was new. The wine underwent secondary malolactic fermentation during Spring and the wine then matured in barriques for a period of 2 years prior to course filtration and bottling. |
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To look at the wine shows a dense ruby red. A complex melange of aromas inclusive of blueberry, blackcurrant, white pepper, dutch liquorice, lavender and apricot are subtly underpinned by a clove-like oak influence. When tasted, a velvety attack of rich flavour is true to the bouquet and carries across the palate astride a supple, elegant tannin/acid structure. The flavour is generous and persistant. |
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2005 Pierrepoint Pinot Noir | |||||||||||
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Comments like "real pinot magic", "built to drink with food and to last" and "you must look at this" describe the 2005 Pierrepoint Pinot Noir. A long hot ripening season culminating in a harvest during temperatures of 40C resulted in a richer, meatier, more complex wine than previous vintages. | |||||||||||
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