2018 Kusuda - Pinot Noir

A brooding, densely fruited style that fills the mouth with a silken, seamless core of fruit. It is so easy to be seduced by this intensely satisfying wine. The finest-grained tannins melt like butter while the acidity makes the mouth water. Aromas of black cherry are joined by oak-derived festive spices (32% new barrels) and a lifted herbal note derived from a small portion of whole-bunch fermentation. Slightly hazy, the wine is unfined and only coarsely filtered. Lovingly made, and that's reflected in the glass.

Hand-harvested 14 – 24 March with rigorous selection at 21.5 – 23 Brix. Wide range of clones: Abel, Dijon 113/114/115/667/777, UCD 5/6, 10-5 and Mariafeld. TA 5.0 g/l, pH 3.76. 85% destemmed, cold soaked for 6 to 12 days. Fermented in open stainless-steel vats with pumping-over and hand-plunging for a total period of maceration of 17 to 25 days. Aged in French (31.6% new) oak barriques for 16 months. Unfined and bottled with coarse filtration on 13 September 2019. 4,940 bottles produced. Pale, transparent ruby colour. Sweet and toasty nose with violet freshness and delicacy. Very pure indeed. This kisses rather than soaks the palate. Dry, savoury finish. So clean! This refreshes the palate. Long. This builds towards the end in the burgundian manner – though it's lighter than most red burgundies. It will develop more complexity in bottle, I suspect. You could drink this now but there is no hurry, I feel. Just a tiny rusty-nail character on the end. I may well be underestimating the drinking window. (JR)