The vines for this wine were meticulously maintained to maximize fruit ripening. All Pinot Noir bunches were exposed to as much light as possible through leaf removal to promote maturation and flavour development. 'Green Harvest'- meaning the elimination of under ripe bunches - was performed at the first sign of veraison. Veraison is the colour change from green to red for Pinot Noir berries. A meager 10-12 bunches per vine were left to hang in order to encourage ripening, concentration of flavours and expression of our Beamsville Bench terroir.

The grapes were handpicked sorted twice, de-stemmed and chilled for 7-10 days- this cold soak encourages fruit flavours. The wine was fermented with native yeasts and the skins were hand-plunged one to four times daily during fermentation to balance extraction with finesse in the finished wine.

Gravity was used to directly fill barrels at the end of fermentation and the skins were gently pressed in a traditional basket press This Pinot Noir sent 12 months in a mixture of new and older French Oak barrels and aged a further 6 months in stainless steel barrels. The wine was neither pumped fined or filtered.

Winemakers Comments

The dark ruby red 2008 Felseck Vineyard Pinot Noir offers up superb aromas of classic sour cherry, earthy beetroot, cherry wood and a smokey minerality. The dark, berry fruit palate is rich  dense and well rounded by silky tannins. This Pinot has enough structure to age well over the  next 5 to 7 years.