The Twenty Six Pinot Noir

Sadly our first vintage of still Pinot Noir is running out. It is only available in Chalk and at the Cellar Door Shop while stocks last.

A first for Wiston Estate – a still Pinot Noir made from the first twenty six rows of Pinot Noir vines in our original vineyard.

As the world entered into lockdowns in spring 2020, the warm weather arrived and accelerated all critical growth stages. The Findon Park Vineyard missed the spring frosts, then had exceptional weather during flowering through to fruit set. Then a fantastic summer allowed the grapes to reach a natural potential alcohol of 13% and a pH of over 3.3. The lack of disease allowed us to leave the fruit hanging on the vines for as long as we needed to reach the perfect level of ripeness. With these favourable factors, and upon assessing the quality of our own Dijon clones from Findon Park Vineyard, we decided to dedicate these to a still red Pinot Noir. Grapes were destemmed, crushed  (by foot!) and fermented in three open top fermenters. Punch downs by hand took place twice a day for two weeks. The fermenters were kept in the coolest part of the winery to ensure a slow, cool ferment. The wine was then pressed, and fermentation was finished in old French oak barrels of 225L and 500L. Here the wine stayed for 14 months. It was so exciting to follow this wine on its journey in barrel. We racked it into tank to settle for a month before bottling.

The wine is beautifully fragrant with layers of vibrant cherries, red roses, cocoa and underlying note of smokey tobacco leaf. Velvety smooth and utterly moreish, it is a wine to savour. It would make a wonderful match with an indulgent pork chop, or a selection of Sussex cheeses.