De La Terre Pinot Noir 2025

De La Terre Pinot Noir is made from a 1.78-acre vineyard block, planted in 2007. The clone is predominantly 777 but includes a portion of 114. The vine spacing is 1.0m and the row spacing is 1.2m (8,333 vines/hectare), and the block is made up of two sections: the top flat section, which has north-south row orientation, and the east slope, which has an east-west orientation. The soils are dark clay over weathered basalt and limestone. The site is more exposed than our other Pinot Noir blocks, with the canopies receiving greater light exposure, this vineyard is generally picked earlier.

Handpicked fruit was fermented in open-top fermenters, with a portion of whole cluster layered through the ferments. The wine spent 13 days on skins before being pressed to French oak hogsheads, of which 30% was new. Malolactic fermentation occurred naturally, and the wine remained untouched, on lees, through maturation for 10 months prior to blending and bottling.

Pale ruby in colour, De La Terre opens with lifted aromas of dried herbs, incense, red cherry and floral spice, alongside cherry cola, bitter Campari and orange rind. The palate is elegant, savoury and high-toned, with fine tannins, fresh acidity and a persistent mineral finish, the high-density planting bringing concentration that comes through as detail and texture rather than pure power or weight. A filigreed, distinctive, fragrant and finely detailed expression of Pinot Noir, and quite possibly the best we have released from this site.