Lake Chalice Plume Pinot Noir Marlborough 2019

The Pinot Noir grapes were sourced from the founding Eyrie Vineyard in the Waihopai Valley on the southern side of the Wairau Plain. The vines are trained as Vertical Shoot position (VSP), which is the most common training system in the Marlborough region, as it helps to facilitate practices such as leaf removal, shoot removal and cluster thinning. The clone 667 vines, which make up one of the smallest parcels from the vineyard, were hand-harvested. The vines are sustainably cultivated as part of the Sustainable Winegrowing NZ programme, which entails biodiversity conservation, plant protection strategies, managed fertiliser use and water resource management. Additionally, hack boxes which are strategically placed in the vineyard are used to release young Kārearea falcons back into the wild.

The Plume is Lake Chalice’s finest Pinot Noir. 20% of the fruit was co-fermented as whole clusters, imparting layers of complexity. It was 100% matured for 10 months in 225-litre French oak barriques, one third of which was new, one third was second use and one third was third use. The quality of the fruit was so high that this wine was vinified without fining or filtration and was crafted with the aim of spending time in bottle, so it may have a natural sediment from its time being bottle-aged.