Pinot Noir, Block 5, Central Otago, 2023

A generous nose of hedgerow berry fruit and violets. The palate is full and expressive with plenty of structure, power and grip. Flowing red and dark fruit, notes of wild herbs, leading to a lovely minerality on the finish. Concentrated and more backward than the other wines, pleasing to see such detail and expression of flavour already but there is a lot more to come from this. The tannins have a firm grip on this initially, but a little aeration and these soon melt into core of the wine, allowing the deep and velvety fruit to come to the fore. Gentle north facing slope in the middle of The Elms vineyard planted in 1993. The soils vary up the slope from heavy loess and silt, clay lakebed deposits, and angular schist gravels. 20% whole Clusters. 16 Months in 25% French new Oak Barrels.