Flavour Profile
As a personal favorite of Mt. Beautiful’s owner David Teece, it’s incredibly important for our Pinot Noir to showcase the best aspects of the varietal. Subtlety is the secret inside this wine. It begins with sophisticated oral fragrances of violets and blackberries, while showcasing an elegant medium-weight palate that features ripe blackberry fruit, earthiness and subtle tannins.
Winemaker Notes
2015 was the best vintage for Pinot Noir we have experienced yet at Mt. Beautiful. It is also the rst vintage made in our brand new state-of-the-art winemaking facility specially designed for producing small lot Pinot Noir. Good owering led to even bunches and well-balanced vines. Although the summer season was warmer than normal with hot days and warm nights, cooling easterly winds helped to slow ripening.
All our fruit was hand-picked, de-stemmed and gravity fed to tank. Individual blocks were fermented separately, and comprised of multi clonal blends which add complexity and aid the integration of avours. Seven days of cold soaking were followed by a fast ferment, with punch downs twice a day to achieve an aromatic wine with good tannin balance.
After two weeks of post-ferment maceration, the grapes were pressed, with free-run and pressings kept separate. Aged for 10 months in French oak barrels; 25% of which were new, the wine went through malo-lactic fermentation in barrel, racked once and lightly ned with egg whites prior to bottling in March.
The Perfect Match
Pair our Mt. Beautiful Pinot Noir with crispy duck, wild pork, water cress sandwiches, spring lamb or a romantic mood.

For The Afcionado
Planted 2004-2013 8 Blocks
21.6 hectares 4000 Vines @2.2x1.0 metres
Our Pinot Noir is planted on the Southern section of our vineyard, which has the highest elevation, providing extra warmth and less exposure to frost. In addition, our vines are closely planted to reduce vigour, resulting in lower crop levels and allowing us to ripen these grapes to achieve a true expression of this variety. We hand tend all our Pinot Noir throughout the season and at harvest.
Our mix of Pinot Noir clones were speci cally chosen for their favour pro le with 50% of the vineyard planted in Burgundy clones. Clone 667 fills out the middle palate, while 777 provides a long finish. The rest of the vines are a mixture of eleven other clones, including UCD 5, UCD 6, 114, 115, Mariafeld, AM10, 4, 5, 943 and Abel. The aim of these selections is to build sound palate structure in the wine, providing a vibrant ruby colored wine with ripe fruit, subtle tannins, great length and persistence of favour.

Appellation North Canterbury
Analysis at Bottling
Alcohol 14.0% TA 5.9 RS <1.0 pH 3.78
Bottled March 2016
Production 2780 Cases

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