| Cellaring Key: |
 Hold:
Although our wines can be enjoyed in the first year or two, we feel that
a couple of years cellaring will allow the wine to settle in bottle and develop more interesting
characters rather than just the vibrant youthfulness of freshly bottled wine. |
 Hold
and Drink:
The wine can be enjoyed now if one prefers the
tighter and more vibrant structure of younger wines. It will also reward further
cellaring for softer more refined tannins and acidity. |
 Drink:
This is when the wine is at its window of optimal maturity and has developed
secondary and perhaps even tertiary characters. The wine will have more complexity and should
still have a solid backbone. |
 Peaked:
We feel the wine is perhaps past its prime. However, there are widely
varying views on what is a fully mature bottle of wine that offers considerable drinking
pleasure. We tend to err on the side of caution and would prefer to see the wines enjoyed
before they tire and dry out. By all means keep a bottle or two for interest! |
 Not
Made:
Not made in this vintage |
|
This cellaring guide offers recommendations made by Blair and Nigel. We have
also included comments made by wine writers as they have tasted them throughout the life
of the wines, especially on the more recent vintages. The aim is to provide cellaring notes
(which are all dated when tasted) on the different wines as they age and change in complexity
and maturity. These are more general thoughts on the condition of the wine as they mature
rather than specific tasting notes.
In general we are very pleased with the way our early wines have been maturing to date,
and in some cases, we’ve been pleasantly surprised. It must be remembered that these
early wines were made from younger vines and younger minds! We hold a lot more confidence
in the ageability of our wine since 2002 – is this a coincidence that this is when
we started to farm biodynamically?
The wines tasted have all been carefully cellared at a constant 14°C in our winery
library. From 2001 we started to use Stelvin screwcaps instead of cork on our Pinot Noir
and Chardonnays, and from 2002 onwards our Rieslings. Where possible the guide refers to
the wines under Stelvin closure. If you have a cork version expect it to be 1-2 years more
developed.
We hope this guide is helpful. Please feel free to contact us should you require further
details. |
