Joshua Cooper Straws Lane Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017 TYRRELLS WINES

Viticulture: Lutte raisonee/sustainable

The Straws Lane Vineyard was established in 1987 by Clive Rowe, and planted predominantly to Pinot Noir, it is now tended to by the meticulous Elizabeth Hudsbeth and Alex Stevenson. Situated at 850 metres above sea level Straws Lane on the North face of Mount Macedon in red volcanic mountain loam, the vines overlook the Southern side of the Cobaw Ranges, often from up in the clouds. The latest ripening site in the region, this vineyard provides small crops of thick skinned and intensely flavoured grapes at especially low sugar levels.

The classic 2017 season was a return to slow steady ripening providing low yields of concentrated grapes with beautiful balance and freshness, in this case around 1250kg per acre. Once hand harvested in the cool of morning, with careful sorting in the vineyard, 50% was transferred as whole cluster to a single open fermenter, the remainder gently de-stemmed and placed on top. The must was then allowed to soak 4-5 days at its cool ambient temperature until fermentation commenced. There after the grapes were gently extracted by a combination of pumping over and pigage by foot. The wine then pressed after a total of three weeks on skins and transferred to a single new (Laurent ‘Magic Cask ” thick stave, blonde toast) and four old (6-10yo) oak Burgundian piece for lees aging for 12 months, followed by six months in stainless steel onfine lees. Before racking and bottling, unfined and unfiltered. The only addition to the wine is a small dose of sulphur the week before bottling.

12% alcohol 125 dozen produced.

– Winery Note