Mud House releases premium single clone Pinot Noir from 2010 vintage

25 February 2014 Media Release

Mud House has just released a small bottling of 2010 Pinot Noir from a single block at its Central Otago, vineyard.

‘N Block’ at Mud House’s Claim 431 Vineyard, in Bendigo, Central Otago, consists solely of spur pruned, clone 667 Pinot Noir and has been identified as a superior block over recent vintages.

The clone 667 Pinot Noir grapes were hand-picked, de-stemmed with whole berries intact; cold soaked for a week and then hand plunged twice daily. The wine then spent 15 months in French oak barrels, 30% of which were new, before being cellared in bottle for nearly 3 years.

After what has been joked about as the ‘arduous task’ of tasting this special wine every few months, the Mud House winemaking team has decided all the components have come together perfectly, and that the wine is now ready for release.

“We chose to bottle a wine from this particular block because of the wine’s layered flavour profile and its complex ripe tannins” said Nadine Worley, Mud House Winemaker. “We wanted the wine to have enough time in bottle for the tannins to fully integrate with the complex flavour and structure of the wine”.

“This wine reflects the great Pinot Noir growing conditions Bendigo is developing a reputation for; schist rocks on the high ridge and thin loess layers over river gravels on the lower slopes. N Block has been a stunning site, from the word go,” said Nadine.

Early last year at the Pinot Noir NZ 2013 event held in Wellington, the ‘N Block’ was shown as a sneak preview labelled only as a “Mud House Barrel Sample”. Feedback from Sommeliers and pinotphiles alike was very positive, with questions around why the wine wasn’t available to buy, or promote in media.

Mud House Group Winemaker, Ben Glover says that after showcasing the wine at Pinot Noir NZ 2013 then having used the sample in trial work, lab tastings and tastings with visitors and staff; only 840 bottles of the ‘N Block’ Pinot Noir are available for release. ”It’s all but ‘extinct’” Ben said.

Ben went on to say, “Those that are fortunate enough to enjoy the superb mouth feel, and N Block’s pure aromatic graphite dark cherry and spice expression of site and clone 677 are few and far between – so should count themselves lucky!”.

End.

Media Contact: For more information, images or to set up a media visit with Mud House, please contact Hannah Armstrong; PR, Communication and Event Co-ordinator. Phone: + 64 27 332 5050 Email: hannah.armstrong@nzve.co.nz