[New Zealand] Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir New Zealand 2013

During Chinese New Year, I bought 2 bottles of Pinot Noir from New World countries for tasting. The 1^st one is DuMOL RRV 2011 in my previous post. The 2^nd one is Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir New Zealand 2013. Felton Road winery is located in the far southern New Zealand’s region Central Otago sub-zone Bannockburn. This region has a lot of mountains and come with continental climate with dry and warm weather. This warm climate gives the grape ripe fruit flavors, heavier taste and more tannic. Felton Road winery was established in 1991, winemaker Blair Walter believes in natural wine, using 100% organic winegrowing, biodynamic viticulture and wild yeast for wine fermentation, trying the best to minimize artificial disturbance, and let the wine to develop naturally.  

Felton Road has 3 vineyards in Bannockburn, the grapes for this wine are blended from one 1/3 of each vineyards. They harvest the grapes by hands. For winemaking, the wine has long maceration to extract deep color, more tannic and more fruit flavor. After fermentation, the wine will be aged for 11 months in French oak barrels. All the wine is fermented with wild yeast and before bottling the wine it won’t be filtered, to let the wine keep develop in the bottles.

My Taste note: The wine has beautiful purple color. It has red fruit such as cherry, spices, cinnamon, vanilla and black pepper aromas. In the palate is medium body, dry, pleasant acid and fine tannic. At the end, it has a long and layers after taste. Overall, this wine has complex aromas and fruity mouthfeel. This time I tried two Pinot Noir wine from two different regions. USA DuMOL and New Zealand Felton Road, both has their unique flavor. If, you like fruity Pinot Noir, less structured, NZ Pinot Noir will be a good choice.

在新年期間我買了兩枝新世界Pinot Noir葡萄酒來品嚐. 上次我已介紹過美國DuMOL RRV 2011,這次是一枝來自紐西蘭的Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir New Zealand 2013 Felton Road 酒莊是位於紐西蘭最南邊的Central Otago (中奥塔哥)裡的一個Sub-Zone Bannockburn. 這裡的地形是多山帶有大陸性氣候,天氣都是比較溫暖和乾燥.這種氣候種出來的葡萄帶有成熟水果的味道,比較濃的味道和單寧會較多.Felton Road 酒莊建立於1991年,釀酒師Blair Walter崇奉天然葡萄酒, 採用100%的有機耕種,自然動力種植葡萄和野生酵母發酵,盡可能降低人為的干擾,讓葡萄酒自然發展.

Felton Road在Bannockburn有 3 個葡萄園, 每個葡萄園的3/1葡萄都是用來釀製這款酒.他門操用人手採摘葡萄,釀酒過程包括,讓葡萄汁和果皮有較長時間的浸泡,可以抽取更深的顏色,更多單寧和更多果味.發酵完之後會在法國木桶內熟成11個月.所有葡萄酒都是用野生酵母發酵和裝瓶前不會過濾,讓葡萄酒在瓶裡繼續發展.

我的品酒筆記: 酒的顏色有漂亮紫色,帶有紅色果香例如車厘子,香料,肉桂,香草,和黑胡椒香氣.口感是中等酒身,乾型紅酒,宜人的酸,有細緻單寧.它有較長和層次感的After Taste.整體這款酒有複雜的香氣和Fruity的口感.這次我試了兩枝來自不同地區的Pinot Noir. USA DuMOL和紐西蘭Felton Road兩枝酒都有它的獨特之處.如果你喜歡比較fruity的Pinot Noir,結構較為輕快,紐西蘭的Pinot Noir會是很好的選擇.