Grapes for the Bannockburn Pinot Noir come exclusively from estate and winery-managed vineyards situated on the south side of the Kawarau River. While subject to the seasonal and diurnal temperature extremes of the Central Otago, each vineyard has a specific terroir and a variety of low fertility soil types: light sands, clays, loams and gravels. The majority of grapes come from earlier plantings which are predominantly clones 5, 6 and 10/5, while more recent plantings are a mix of Dijon clones 113, 115, 667 and 777.

A vintage of variability, contrasts and many different phases of weather through the growing season. A normal to warm start to the season was interrupted by a cold snap and snowfall mid-November. Weather over flowering was patchy, but overall flowering was successful. An oddity during summer this year was warmer nights and cooler days. this gives the appearance of a warmer season than it really was. There was a significant amount of early season rainfall, right through to the end of January. Cool and very dry conditions prevailed through February when verasion occurs - slowing that phase of ripening down. The heat and regular rainfall did reappear in March and then finally a very cool and lengthy final ripening phase through April.

For a full expression of terroir, we co-fermented different clonal lots from the same vineyard, while keeping vineyards separate. About 75% of our ferments were de-stemmed only; the remaining quarter contained 15-40% whole clusters. Fermentation with indigenous yeasts lasted an average of 7 days with daily punch downs. The wine stayed on skins for a further 7-9 days post-dryness, after which 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.