2022 Animale Pinot Noir

This has components from both upper and lower Yarra Valley. The low-yeilding Highbow Vineyard and Yarra Station are both in the lower valley and make up the lions share, while Primavera is in the upper, Woori Yallock subregion and contributed just 9% of the blend.

The Highbow and Primavera batches were completely destemmed and fermented for around 20 days with a light pump-over every day, followed by a few plunges towards the end of maceration. The wines were separately pressed to old hogsheads for malo and maturation. The fruit from Yarra Station (54%) was fermented as whole bunches for approximately 12 days.

After a few light stomps it was pressed to stay on light lees in old 500 L puncheons and barriques. Malolactic completed over a few months, and the the three wines were racked together and returned to barrel for a further month without sulphur. Finally it was racked lightly again to tank prior to a light sulphur addition in preparation for bottling. No fining or filtration.