Pinot Noir 2015
Tasting Notes
There are beautiful ripe red fruits on the nose – think plums and strawberries along with a light, alluring spice. The Bosworth Pinot Noir is a middle weight wine with red fruit running through the palate and framed within lovely tannins. This wine goes very well with cheeses, chicken dishes and charcuterie.
Vintage
We had a very early start to vintage in 2015, with generally mild conditions throughout. We had only a handful of hot days, which allowed natural acids to develop nicely. This was a very short, sharp vintage, with most winemakers finishing their vintage well before Easter. Yields were down, somewhere between 10 and 30% depending on variety. Joch’s take on the whole affair? ‘Fast, early and pretty’.
Winemaking
Our Pinot Noir vines are nearly 30 years old and I believe are the last 2 or maybe 3 blocks of this variety left in the district. In that way they are practically an historical anomaly – McLaren Vale grew masses of Pinot in the 1980’s mainly to supply wineries with sparkling wine base. We kept ours, although Ding’s Block Shiraz was once all Pinot. The young Joch Bosworth actually helped plant Braden’s Pinot way back in 1987 when he was drafted into labour by old man Peter. Ah, nothing like cheap labour back then.
In deference to our warm climate we pick the Pinot early and make it more like a Beaujolais than a Burgundy because we want to make a wine with soft tannins and gentle aromas on the strawberry end of the spectrum. To do this we put about 30% of the grapes through carbonic maceration. The grapes are hand-picked and allowed to ferment (without being crushed) in plastic bags in apple crates. We processed the balance of the grapes in a fairly standard red winemaking fashion; crushed, fermented, pressed off skins into (predominantly older) oak before blending back to the ‘cab mac’ component and bottling.
Other Vintages
Technical Details
Vineyards: Braden's
Picking Date: 6th February 2015
Bottling Date: 20th October 2015
pH Level: 3.82
Alc/Vol: 14.0%