Muddy Waters Hare’s Breathe Pinot Noir 2012

Description

Muddy Water was one of the founding wineries in Waipara, New Zealand, and an organic pioneer on the South Island. Planted in 2003 on the clay slopes of the Omihi hills with ungrafted vines, the name Muddy Water comes from the traditional Maori name Wai (water) and Para (muddy) referring to the rich clay soils in the area. Muddy Water’s 7 hectares of vines form the oldest certified organic vineyard in the region and they make all their wines in a straw bale winery on site. All the grapes are harvested by hand, wild fermented and bottled without fining on site staying true to their motto Hand-crafted No Compromise.

Muddy Water was the first certified organic winery in Canterbury, and all our wines are certified AsureQuality organic. As many New Zealand wines become more commercialised we aim in the other direction, making small batch wines with soul. We believe true fine wines are temporal, each vintage a fleeting snapshot of a place in time. We don’t seek to manipulate the final product with additives or flavourings, instead we allow a true interpretation of the soil, vines and season to shine through. The majority of our vines are ungrafted, now a rarity in the industry, giving our wines an authentic expression found in few other places.

Crop management is done meticulously by hand without herbicides, insecticides or systemic fungicides, using organic methods and biodynamic soil management to proactively promote soil and vine health. It’s a hands on approach that means being intimately connected to the blocks, walking the rows and being attuned to subtle changes in the soil, vines and grapes. It’s labour intensive, but it’s also how you make truly remarkable wine. For us, it’s a labour we love. At harvest we handpick the bunches, tasting the grapes and inspecting them for important flavour signifiers like seed ripeness. We find that if you’ve got great grapes, you don’t have to do much to them. We use wild yeast fermentation and bottle unfiltered whenever possible. Bottling unfined and unfiltered reveals more layers and complexity, it’s like listening to your favourite album on vinyl and hearing richer, more nuanced tones. It’s wine for slowing down and savouring.

Perched on the hillside, the Hare’s Breath block earned its name from momentary glimpses by winery staff of an enigmatic wild hare living among the vines. On cool winter mornings the hare’s breath can be seen in frosty puffs. Lumps of free limestone are dotted in the soil surface, giving a strong mineral character to the fruit. Natural air movement down the slopes keeps everything frost free and the hillside soils are free draining, making this a reliable block even on wetter years. A little irrigation is needed in summer, drawn from the naturally renewing spring on the property. These rows are planted to a higher density than our older blocks with a mix of seven newer clone types from Burgundy, including one rumoured to have been smuggled out of Domaine de la Romanee Conti in the 1970s, tucked into a rugby player’s gumboot. The vines are now reaching maturity and with careful spur-pruning and minimal irrigation we ensure a low yield, with each vine producing just enough fruit to create a single bottle of wine.

94 points, Bob Campbell MW   “Elegant Pinot Noir with a haunting mix of floral, mineral and red fruit flavours. Vibrant wine with a drying structure of fine tannins that help drive a lengthy finish. Subtle power. Will cellar well.”

RRP $80 Our price $71.99 last bottles