2024 Felton Road Cornish Point Pinot Noir 750ml

Winery Tasting Notes:

Red cherry, plum and a hint of dried herbs open the nose in a delightfully fragrant manner. The aromatics deftly define the knife edge ripeness that’s critical for great Pinot Noir; dialled in with ease in the exceptional 2024 vintage. Cardamom, mace and cranberry make an appearance, followed by a finely poised mouthfeel. The silky tannins are luscious and sweet, providing backbone and length. A typically expressive Cornish Point.

Winery Introduction:

Felton Road's journey began in 1991 with a focus on meticulous site selection and vineyard design, driven by an unwavering commitment to quality. Their 100% estate policy, combined with fully organic and biodynamic practices (Demeter certified), ensures that the grapes arrive at the winery in their purest form. The estate strives for near-total sustainability, while their hands-off winemaking approach—utilizing gravity flow, wild yeasts, and natural malolactic fermentation, and avoiding fining and filtration—preserves the wine's authentic expression of its terroir. Additions or adjustments are made only when absolutely necessary.

Since 2002, the vineyards have been managed using organic and biodynamic practices. In 2010, they received full Demeter certification, and in 2020, they also earned BioGro certification. Pruning is done to control bud numbers for manageable yields and to develop an even, well-exposed canopy. Irrigation is typically required during the dry summer months, with soil moisture closely monitored and water applied only as needed. All grapes are hand-harvested, with quality variations within blocks—due to different clones, rootstocks, and viticultural experiments—carefully separated.

Vintage Notes:

After a wet September, spring commenced with good soil moisture and bud burst occurred at the normal time of early October. Temperatures hovered around average with December being warm and dry, enabling a successful flowering and fruit set. The dry conditions prevailed throughout January and February limiting berry size and setting the scene for fruit with elevated phenolic material and complexity. Judicious use of irrigation was required to maintain sufficient vine health throughout this sustained dry period. Temperatures never spiked and hovered around average enabling a slow and steady path to maturity. A distinctive feature of March 2024 was the cool night temperatures preserving acidity, freshness and precision of fruit character. Pinot Noir was harvested from 19 March to 9 April.

Winemaking Notes:

The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping, with 25% retained as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately long maceration on skins has extracted good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This wine was aged for 13 months in 20% new French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In accordance with our non-interventionist approach to winemaking, this wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and malolactic, and was not fined or filtered.