Luna Estate Martinborough Pinot Noir 2018

Luna Estate Martinborough Pinot Noir 2018French oak Red cherry & raspberry Spice & earthy notes Silky mouthfeel "It's sweetly fruited and elegantly perfumed on the nose showing spiced cherry, floral, thyme and toasted nut characters. The palate delivers juicy fruit flavours and lovely rounded mouthfeel, leading to a lengthy silky finish. Beautifully composed and splendidly drinkable. At its best: now to 2023" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jul 2020 "Offering great value, the 2018 vintage (****) was

• French oak
• Red cherry & raspberry
• Spice & earthy notes
• Silky mouthfeel

"It's sweetly fruited and elegantly perfumed on the nose showing spiced cherry, floral, thyme and toasted nut characters. The palate delivers juicy fruit flavours and lovely rounded mouthfeel, leading to a lengthy silky finish. Beautifully composed and splendidly drinkable. At its best: now to 2023" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jul 2020

"Offering great value, the 2018 vintage (****) was grown at two sites (mostly Blue Rock Vineyard) and matured for nine months to a year in French oak barriques and puncheons. Ruby hued, it is mouthfilling and sweet-fruited, with generous, ripe cherry, plum, spice and nut flavours, oak complexity and a finely structured finish. Best drinking 2022+" Michael Cooper, Aug 2020

Vibrant, clear bright ruby colour. Really nice bit of Pinot Noir perfumery here! Loads of aromatic red cherry and raspberry with some red rose oil and a hint of earth and spice. Silky mouthful soft red berry flavour with a nive accesible feel to it. Delicious with easy appeal, but still with enough of the serious stuff for those who want that kind of thing. Best drinking from 2021 onwards.

A blend of fruit harvested from both of the winemakers vineyards, majority coming from the younger plantings at the Blue Rock vineyard. Dijon clones 777,667 ommard 114,115 also UCD 5 and Abel. Average vine age of around 15 years. Majority of fruit is de-stemmed, around 5% fermented whole cluster. Fermentation take place mostly in 6 ton open top fermenters. Handled lightly, with 2-3 plunges per day. Total maceration time 20-30 days. Post ressing the wine is run off into mixture of new and seasoned French oak barriques and puncheons. Maturation in barrel for 9-12 months. No animal products using in the finishing of the wine.

Ample Winter and early Spring rains made parts of the vineyard inaccessible for machinery in the early part of the growing season. Conditions chaned to extreme dry with a mini drought and wel above average temperatures into late October/November. Good even budhurst followed by an excellent fruit set, combined with rapid shoot growth promising an excellent crop. Alas, the weather turned again! High and frequent rainfall combined with high temperatures created a nightmare scenario in the vineyard; everything grew like crazy, and disease pressure was very high! The team worked like mad and made the best of a difficult season. Harvest in the end was two-three weeks ahead of normal. For the winemakers they at least harvest some fantastic flavours for the most part, with some blocks looking the best they had ever seen.

Food Pairing: Crispy duck pancakes with plum sauce.