Auntsfield continues the proud heritage of Marlborough’s first vineyard and winery established in 1892. Our Single Block wines display qualities distinctive to grapes grown within a defined area at Auntsfield Estate. Consistent quality and character over many vintages has separated these Single Blocks out as producing our Reserve Wines.
This wine is only made when a selection of traditionally made wine from our steepest hill side exhibits the intensity, complexity, balance and sense of place required to honour the heritage of Auntsfield Estate: Marlborough’s first vineyard and winery.
TASTING NOTES:
COLOUR: Deep ruby, very intense.
AROMA: Savoury and complex aromas of exotic spices, dark berry fruits and floral notes. Hints of cocoa and roasted almonds.
PALATE: The palate is immensely dense and concentrated and shows an elegant complexity. Luscious dark fruit flavours integrating gamey spice. The wine has an intense depth and yet silky fine tannin structure, giving seamless length and many years of aging potential.
ANALYSIS: Alc. 14 % | pH 3.72 | TA 5.5 g/L
WINEMAKER NOTES:
This wine is made with a sense of place. The steep clay hillsides at Auntsfield give us fruit with great density, complexity and tannin structure. Winemaking is carried out with a desire to reveal these characters in the wine. The fruit is hand harvested and gravity fed into an open top oak vessel with a proportion of fruit being whole bunch fermented. This was hand plunged once fermentation begins. The wine was kept on skins for an extended period following fermentation before being aged in oak for 14 months.
VITICULTURALIST NOTES:
The 2020 season was amazing! If you could reproduce the weather conditions of this season every year you would. Regular winter rainfall and a cool spring encouraged canopy growth but kept cropping levels low. Summer was very dry but stayed relatively cool resulting in healthy vines with no disease or water stress. There was a slow progression into Autumn with a long ripening period where the fruit reached optimum ripeness in perfect harvest conditions.
COLOUR: Deep ruby, very intense.
AROMA: Savoury and complex aromas of exotic spices, dark berry fruits and floral notes. Hints of cocoa and leather.
PALATE: The palate is immensely dense and concentrated with luscious black fruit flavours integrating with oak spice. The wine has an intense and yet silky fine tannin structure, great length and many years of aging potential.
ANALYSIS: Alc. 13.5 % | pH 3.54 | TA 5.0 g/L
This wine is made with a sense of place. The steep clay hillsides at Auntsfield give us fruit with great density, complexity and tannin structure. Winemaking is carried out with a desire to reveal these characters in the wine. The fruit is hand harvested and gravity fed into an open top oak vessel with a proportion of fruit being whole bunch fermented. This was hand plunged once fermentation begins. The wine was kept on skins for an extended period following fermentation before being aged in oak for 14 months.
The 2019 season was full of sunshine and very little rain which reduced yields to very low levels. The fruit for this wine comes from the very top of our steepest hillside at Auntsfield Estate. The cropping level is naturally very low (1kg per vine) from these very old slow growing vines that are exposed to the hillside winds and rock-hard clay.
COLOUR: Deep ruby, very intense.
AROMA: Savoury and complex aromas of exotic spices, dark berry fruits and floral notes. Hints of cocoa and leather.
PALATE: The palate is immensely dense and concentrated with luscious black fruit flavours integrating with oak spice. The wine has an intense and yet silky fine tannin structure, great length and many years of aging potential.
ANALYSIS: Alc. 14.0% | pH 3.44 | TA 5.3
WINEMAKER NOTES
This wine is made with a sense of place. The steep clay hillsides at Auntsfield give us fruit with great density, complexity and tannin structure. Winemaking is carried out with a desire to reveal these characters in the wine. The fruit is hand harvested and gravity fed into open top oak vessels with a proportion of fruit being whole bunch fermented. These are then hand plunged (with our bare hands) once fermentation begins. The wine is kept on skins for an extended period following fermentation before being aged in oak for 18 months.
VITICULTURALIST NOTES
The 2015 season offered up many challenges but particularly a cold windy Spring which reduced yields to very low levels. The fruit for this wine comes from the very top of our steepest hillside at Auntsfield Estate. The cropping level is naturally very low (1kg per vine) from these very old slow growing vines that are exposed to the hillside winds and rock-hard clay.
COLOUR: Deep ruby, very intense.
AROMA: Savoury and complex aromas of exotic spices, dark berry fruits and floral notes. Hints of cocoa and leather.
PALATE: The palate is immensely dense and concentrated with luscious black fruit flavours integrating with oak spice. The wine has an intense and yet silky fine tannin structure, great length and many years of aging potential.
ANALYSIS: Alc. 14.0% | pH 3.57 | TA 5.5
WINEMAKER NOTES: This wine is made with a sense of place. The steep clay hillsides at Auntsfield give us fruit with great density, complexity and tannin structure. Winemaking is carried out with a desire to reveal these characters in the wine. The fruit is hand harvested and gravity fed into open top oak vessels with a proportion of fruit being whole bunch fermented. These are then hand plunged (with our bare hands) once fermentation begins. The wine is kept on skins for an extended period following fermentation before being aged in oak for 18 months
VITICULTURALIST NOTES: The 2013 season was characterised by a very an early spring and a very long cool growing season perfect for Pinot Noir. The fruit for this wine comes from the very top of our steepest hillside at Auntsfield Estate. The cropping level is naturally very low (1kg per vine) off these very old slow growing vines that are exposed to the hillside winds and rock hard clay.
COLOUR: Deep ruby, very intense.
AROMA: Savoury and complex aromas of exotic spices, dark berry fruits and floral notes. Hints of coffee liqueur, cocoa and leather.
PALATE: The palate is immensely dense and concentrated with luscious black fruit flavours integrating with oak spice. The wine has an intense and yet silky fine tannin structure, great length and many years of aging potential.
ANALYSIS: Alc. 14.0% | pH 3.46 | TA 6.2
WINEMAKER NOTES: This wine is made with a sense of place. The steep clay hillsides at Auntsfield give us fruit with great density, complexity and tannin structure. Winemaking is carried out with a desire to revealing these characters in the wine. The fruit is hand harvested and gravity fed into open top oak vessels with a proportion of fruit being whole bunch (not destemmed). These are then hand plunged (with our bare hands) once fermentation begins. The wine is kept on skins for an extended period following fermentation before being aged in oak for 15 months.
VITICULTURALIST NOTES: The 2010 season was characterised by a very an early spring and a very long cool growing season perfect for Pinot Noir. The fruit for this wine comes from the very top of our steepest hillside at Auntsfield Estate. The cropping level is naturally very low (1kg per vine) off these very old slow growing vines that are exposed to the hillside winds and rock hard clay.
COLOUR: Deep ruby/crimson, very intense
AROMA: Dark berry fruits of blackberry, plum and cherry notes, and hints of dried spice and floral violet notes. Complex aromas of dark chocolate, dried fig, leather, cigar box and meaty savoury characters.
PALATE: An intensely weighted wine with great depth and richness from the dense, dark fruit and brooding complexity. The wine is well structured with ripe, fine grained tannins through to the long finish.
ANALYSIS: Alc. 14.0% pH 3.61 TA 5.6
WINEMAKER NOTES: The Auntsfield Heritage Pinot Noir is only made when we feel that a selection of wine exhibits the intensity, complexity, balance and sense of place required to honour the heritage which David Herd has left us. This wine is made with a sense of place. The steep clay hillsides at Auntsfield give us fruit with great density, complexity and tannin structure. Wine-making is carried out with a desire to revealing these characters in the wine.
The fruit is hand harvested and gravity fed to open top tanks. The juice is fermented with wild yeast and regularly hand plunged. After fermentation, the wine remains on skins and gently plunged until the appropriate level of tannin extraction is achieved. Due to the intensity of the structure of this wine, it is aged in barrel for a full 18 months before bottling.
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