The Bell Hill Pinot Noir is a blend of the Shelf parcels, the Shelf West, Quarry Rootlings and 10/5, the Roadblock and Slope. Most of the fruit was destemmed giving lots of whole berries and a small number of whole clusters were used in the Quarry 10/5 and Shelf 1998 ferments. The ferments had 26 to 30 days on skins with cold pre-ferment and warm post-ferment macerations. After basket pressing, the wine went into 100% new French oak, it was racked and blended after 12 months and had 8 months in tank before bottling on the 9th of December 2019 with a pH of 3.66, TA of 5.4 g/L and an alcohol of 13.5%. 4,911 bottles were produced. One barrel of the Shelf 1998 was bottled for a Single Parcel Pinot Noir giving 285 bottles.
A reductive lift of struck match and flint with primary fruit notes, spicy with a sweet palate entry, soft and relaxed palate with long mineral flow, vibrant acid fruit tension with opulence and silky, fine tannins. Not heavy in structure or colour but has a fine mineral flow and salinity that give a lengthening direction to the wine. A linear wine that has a salivating energy to the wine, giving it nervosity and tension.
The 2018 vintage began with a very mild winter and significant rainfall in early spring. Soil work was completed on time with pruning finishing early and bud burst coming a week early. No water was used during frost protection, just the wind machine when needed. An exceptionally warm growing season with very rapid growth and little wind. Cyclone Gita in February brought significant rainfall and some botrytis pressure with grapes riper than usual for that time of year. Spraying under nets was necessary and fruit thinning continued up to harvest to remove any disease. We started with picking the sparkling base wine on March 16th with selections from Roadblock Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and Limeworks 2009 Chardonnay. Moving to Chardonnay on March 21st to 31st - Limeworks 2009, Shelf, and Limeworks 1999. The Pinot Noirs came in from March 27th to April 5th – Roadblock, Shelf West, Shelf 1998, Quarry Rootlings, Slope, Shelf Top, Shelf Bottom and finally, the Quarry 10/5. Our new winery set-up had its inaugural harvest.
Our winemaking philosophy is simple, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blocks are multi-cloned and harvested, fermented, pressed, put to barrel separately as individual blocks. This allows us to follow the evolution of the parcels for a year before making blending decisions and gives opportunities to evaluate single parcel potential. When we have good volume, we can split blocks in half for winemaking trials. The yeasts are natural, coming from the vineyard, with small natural starters from each parcel after the fruit has been processed into its fermenting vat (PN) or pressed into tank (CH). Malolactic fermentation is 100%, also natural. No fining or clarification agents are used, and filtration is minimal – coarse filtering for Chardonnay, the same for Pinot Noir from the racking valve down, or not at all. For Chardonnay, the first addition of sulphur is at 12 months when the wine comes out of barrel into tank. Pinot Noir sees an addition of sulphur at processing to protect the fruit during its cold maceration time and acid adjustments in the fermenter to stabilise pH for long term stability, colour, and ageing. The wine is then left alone and sulphured in tank after barrel ageing for 12 months. Small sulphur adjustments are made, if necessary, just before bottling.
