Greystone Vineyard Ferment Pinot Noir

It started off as an idea. Then an experiment. A few years later in 2016 was the first commercial release of the Greystone Vineyard Ferment Pinot Noir. The very limited 2018 is here, just the third release of this totally unique and brilliant Pinot.

From the clay and limestone hills of north Canterbury Greystone’s 37 hectares are made up of twelve single blocks. They’ve made a name for kick ass aromatic Waipara whites and world class Pinot Noir and all entirely organically produced.

Their Vineyard Ferment series sees the Greystone crew fermenting the wine back out in the vineyard where the grapes grow, rather than in the winery.

Winemaker Dom Maxwell (Gourmet Traveller’s 2018 Winemaker of the Year) says “It brings us back to why we first got involved with wine – it’s being outside, it’s working with our hands, it’s connecting with nature, it’s making something that’s unique to this place. We love it and we’re going to continue to do it.”

Produced from 100% certified organic grapes, fermented in nature with 100% wild yeasts and 100% aged in old oak for 15 months. It’s unfined and unfiltered. This is, as Dom puts it, made with “very gentle hands“.

Pour a glass and you’d swear the wine has a few years under its belt already. A real Burgundian style Pinot full of complex red fruit and spice flavours with a silky smooth texture and a long powerful finish. A class act.

Here’s something else that’s a bit different – the front label doesn’t have any text on it at all. Instead Greystone used a sketch of the vineyard done by illustrator and local friend Hanna Berry.