The 2004 Winter was much drier than usual leading to low soil moisture levels when the vines came out of dormancy in Spring. This lead to lower fruit set than would be normally expected. The remainder of the season was also fairly dry and cool with the exception of some heavy rain in mid February. Fortunately this rain did little damage to the Pinot Noir grapes and the resulting fruit was clean and intact. Due to the dry year, berries tended to be much smaller than is normal resulting in more fully flavoured fruit.
The fruit was hand picked at optimal maturity. On arrival at the winery the majority of the bunches were gently crushed, with about 10-20% being left as whole berries to encourage Carbonic Maceration, a process that leads to the evolution of sweet fruit flavours. All parcels were given a short period of cold soaking before starting fermentation. During fermentation the wines were pumped over twice daily to encourage extraction of colour and flavour from the skins. Additionally fermentation temperatures were allowed to get quite high (30-32C) which also greatly aids in flavour extraction.
The wines were pressed at dryness after about seven to ten days and were allowed to go through Malolactic Fermentation in oak. The wine was then racked and then further matured in French barrels for about 12 months. After this time each batch was individually assessed for the final blend to ensure an optimal expression of fruit.