Our 2018 Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir wines have deep colour, juicy fruit flavours and ample fine tannin. There were few hot days, but the summer nights were balmy and overall the season was a warm one, Vintage arrived early and with a bang, with different varieties ripening in close succession.

The fruit is from two vineyards to the north of the region, including Handpicked’s flagship Capella Vineyard. The fruit was hand-picked and chilled overnight before being destemmed and sorted by hand. The must was fermented in small fermenters with hand plunging. The wine was matured for 11 months in a mix of old and new French oak barrels from selected Burgundian coopers.

The Morning Peninsula is a maritime region moderated year-round by cooling breezes. The area is renowned for its “four seasons in one day”; spring is notoriously capricious, which can leaf to sleepless nights for vignerons around flowering and fruit set. Summers are dry and relatively cool typically segueing into an autumn of calm, war,, dry days and cool nights.

The season for vines planted on red volcanic soils across the hilly ridge running down the centre of the peninsula generally runs a few weeks behind the vineyards on clay loams on lowlands to the north.