Mt Difficulty is one of the most recognisable names in Central Otago wine. With a towering reputation for producing premium Pinot Noir, the Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir is the standard barer for the range. This wine is a blend of multiple plots managed by the Mt Difficulty vineyard team, with the majority of the fruit coming from the older original plantings that formed the base of the Mt Difficulty project.

It's a powerful Pinot Noir which showcases the great terroir of the Bannockburn sub-region. This is a wine you can cellar for a decade or drink tomorrow. In either case, it will be a great drinking experience. The changeable season led to lower than average yields of 5.2 T/Ha. Picking decisions were tricky with the key focus being phenolic ripeness. We started harvesting our Pinot Noir on April 4th and continued through to April 28th. Where possible, we try to co-ferment different clonal lots from the same vineyard, while vineyards are kept separate.

Around three quarters of our ferments were de-stemmed only; the remaining quarter contained 15-40% whole clusters. The must underwent 8-9 days of cold maceration, being hand plunged once daily. The ferments were heated after this and all fermented with indigenous yeasts. The ferments lasted for an average of 7-9 days during which time they were hand plunged once daily with the temperature peaking at 30°C. The wine stayed on skins for a further 7-9 days post-dryness, and was plunged occasionally with increasing ease. When the wine tasted in harmony it was pressed off to barrel where it resided on full lees for 12 months. It underwent malolactic fermentation in the spring, was racked out of barrel in late autumn and filtered, but not fined, prior to bottling.