he Pinot Noir was picked in early March at optimum ripeness after a cool spring and a warm summer. After a gentle de-stem in the winery, it underwent a 48 hour cold soak before being allowed to warm up naturally prior to inoculation for fermentation. The fermentation temperature was kept between 24 and 28oC in order to retain the fruit but aid extraction of the silky tannins. During fermentation, both plunging and standard pumpovers were used to aid in the gentle extraction of tannin. After alcoholic fermentation, the wine was placed in to 1 year-old French barriques and hogsheads.