2003 MadFish Pinot Noir Tasting Notes

The 2003 growing season was unusually dry, with the lack of rain extending through to late March. The summer was also warm with several days in March reaching an uncharacteristic 40°C in the Great Southern. This combination resulted in an incredibly compact vintage with all the whites and the Pinot Noir harvested, at optimum ripeness, by the end of March. The lack of summer rain produced fruit that was also completely disease free and rich in flavour and colour. 

This wine is a combination of traditional “hand-plunged” one tonne batches with whole bunches and “pump over” batches incorporating a period of “cold soaking”. The wine was then blended and matured for 12 months in a mixture of new and old French oak barriques.

The wine has brick red colours. The nose is a rich, enticing blend of dark berry fruits, violets, a gamey, mushroom complexity and savoury French oak. The palate begins with flavours of black cherry and strawberry, leads onto a more textured, richer mid-palate of dark chocolate and finishes with a long spicy, French oak back palate.

This wine will be best within a two to three year time span.