Vintage Notes
2019 vintage was another in an increasing frequency of above average temperature vintages. Meanwhile the average moves inexorably upward.
At Foggy Hill 2019 was warmer than average with a growing season heat summation (HDD) of 1507ºC days exceeding the average of 1238ºC days However, there were no heat waves. Nights were a strong contributor to the elevated growing season heat and that is a plus for quality. As well as being warm, 2019 was dry with 72% of normal rainfall during the growing season.
Fruit set in late November in cool and damp conditions established a small crop that required no fruit thinning. In 2019 Foggy Hill delivered disease free, thoroughly ripe fruit in perfect condition at moderate sugar levels. The crop level was ideal at 5.5 tonnes/hectare.
2019 Foggy Hill Pinot Noir was harvested on the 8th and 9th of March which is a week ahead of the normal harvest window.
Winemaking Notes
The hand harvested Pinot Noir fruit from Foggy Hill Vineyard was delivered to the Tapanappa Winery in the Piccadilly Valley.
There 15% of chilled whole bunches was placed in the bottom of each 0.8 tonne fermentation tub. The tubs were topped with chilled destemmed and crushed must and allowed a two-day cold soak beginning at 2ºC, then inoculated with our own grown yeast strain and allowed to ferment to a maximum temperature of 33ºC with daily hand plunging of the cap. The whole bunches at the bottom of the tubs were progressively crushed to release their sugar.
At the end of fermentation after 16 days, the tubs were sealed to allow 5 days of maceration on skins then pressed block by block, clone by clone, to barriques (one third new) with an inoculation of a malo-lactic bacterial strain.
After malo-lactic fermentation on full lees, the batches were racked and returned to barrique for maturation. After 10 months in barrique the Foggy Hill batches were clear racked in December of 2019 and blended ready for bottling in February 2020.
The in-bottle analysis is:
| Alcohol | 13.0% |
| pH | 3.61 |
| Total Acid | 5.5gpl |
| Volatile Acidity | 0.67gpl |
| SO2 | 102 ppm |
