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Locharburn 2008 Central Otago Pinot Noir
 This
week I feature a Pinot Noir from a young boutique winery in Central
Otago. In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the number
of vineyards in this part of the country, and it is not really
surprising. Central Otago has long proven itself as a district well
suited for growing fruit. It is a land of contrasts and while it
might have some of the coldest winters in the country, it is often
blessed with very hot summers, eclipsing the rest of the country in
temperature.
While most people have not heard of Locharburn, it is not one of the
newest vineyards in the region. It started in 2004 as the
culmination of a dream by owners Chris and Jenny Hill, when they
left New Plymouth and started a 14ha vineyard overlooking the
Locharburn Stream on North easterly facing terraces near the top of
Lake Dunstan. The reason for their name being unfamiliar is that the
first wines received a low key release over the last few years. The
good news is that now the owners realise that their quality is such
that they should be shared with the wider public of New Zealand.
Even with this change, Locharburn is still committed to making wine
in limited quantities and is a sustainably accredited vineyard.
The unique mesoclimate of the terraces combine with the famous
Central Otago hot summers and long autumns to let the grapes ripen
slowly yielding high quality fruit with intense, complex flavours.
The owners take a hands on approach to the vineyard but also have
help of award winning winemaker Carol Bunn who takes care of the
winemaking.
For their Pinot Noir, they maintained two cordons per vine and spur
pruned to limit bud numbers, manage crop loads and maintain quality.
The vineyard is irrigated from November through to harvest. Vineyard
management also involved fruit thinning and leaf plucking around the
bunch zone to assist with ripening and to improve flavour.
When it was judged as reaching ripeness, the fruit was harvested in
temperatures less than 10 degrees Celsius and transferred to the
winery. At the winery, the fruit was de-stemmed and the must was
kept cold to inhibit the start of the fermentation process for five
to eight days. Once fermentation was completed, the wine was racked
off to French oak barrels to allow malolactic fermentation to take
place. Of these barrels, 30% were new and the rest were two and
three years old. The wine was left in the barrel to mature for six
to eight months before the final blending and finishing took place.
I found the resulting ruby red Locharburn 2008 Pinot Noir to exhibit
aromas of ripe cherry and berries, especially raspberry, with notes
of herbs and exotic spice. The flavours also are reminiscent of ripe
red cherry and raspberry, with hints of herbs and underlying notes
of savoury oak. It is a well balanced wine with dry tannins and a
long lingering finish. It is a quality Pinot Noir, well worth
trying. I would recommend trying it with roast New Zealand lamb, or
for something different it should be a good match for game meats
like duck. It is drinking well now.
Reviewed by Stephen Clark (15/3/2010)
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