Mt Difficulty Packspur Pinot Noir 2009
Aromatically this wine leads with soft, velvety, raspberry / blueberry notes. Adding complexity and intrigue are sweet cinnamon and anise spice details. Rich, full, red fruit of the forest palate entry leads into a well textured lush mid-palate. Finally, lovely finely-structured tannins round out this dense and concentrated wine.
Cellaring potential:
Mt Difficulty Packspur Pinot Noir will improve for 8 -12 years given optimal cellaring conditions.
Vintage:
2009 was a vintage with excellent flavour definition – intense cool varietal flavours with excellent concentration and typically high acidity providing lovely focus on the finish.
A cooler vintage; the volume of the harvest was down 15% on average. Climatically there was a good start to the season, but December was slightly wetter than usual which reduced bunch numbers. A typically turbulent January was followed by a cooler, wet February which slowed down vine growth. Good canopy management was essential, with canopies left as open as possible to minimise the effects of the weather. Central Otago provided its usual long, fine, warm autumn but a week into vintage a cold spell brought on a cold response in the vines. This hurried the ripening process considerably, shortening and intensifying the season.
Vineyard:
The grapes for the wines that carry the Mt Difficulty label have traditionally been sourced from vineyards situated on the South side of the Kawarau River at Bannockburn. The Growers Series is a new direction for Mt Difficulty, allowing us to showcase the terroir of different sub-regions. Packspur Vineyard is situated on Heany Road in Lowburn, on the northern side of Cromwell (as opposed to Bannockburn to the South). The vineyard takes its name from the track that was used to pack supplies over the Pisa Range, from the Lowburn Valley to the gold-fields of the Cardrona Valley. The vineyard irrigation is a miners’ water right from 1863. Packspur Vineyard was planted from locally sourced cuttings by Anne and Laurie McAuley in 1993. The vineyard comprises 3 hectares of north facing Pinot Noir (clones 5, 6, 115 and Lincoln Mix), Pinot Gris, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. The grapes are close-planted on gravelly loam soil. The vineyard escapes the worst of winds and the slopes ensure a minimal frost risk.
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