2018 Charteris Hawkesbury Vineyard Pinot Noir

In 2017/2018 Central Otago, and the whole of New Zealand for that matter, had the hottest summer on record. If it wasn’t for the early Hunter harvest and the coolest February in Central Otago for about 10 years, I would have been right up the proverbial without a paddle. At the Central Otago Pinot Celebration in January delegates are usually headed to the nearest outdoor shop for a couple of layers of merino because of a sudden stall of summer. But January 2018 was the other way. A run on bikinis and boardshorts with delegates sitting in the edge of Lake Wakatipu with frosty glasses of Central Riesling floating nearby was the order of the day. The 2018 harvest will forever be stamped by Central Otago’s glorious summer up until February. A warm spring, even flowering and near perfect growing conditions put the harvest well ahead of anything we have seen before. Were it not for the cool February we may have been picking even earlier. Fortunately, the cool weather slowed ripening enough to maintain bright acidity and result in the plush fruit and silky texture endemic of the 2018 wines from Central Otago.

With the fast and furious nature of the 2018 harvest we found a few new angles from which to view Pinot Noir in Central Otago. The warmer parts of the region producing plush and instantly approachable wines with the traditionally cooler sub regions holding their acidity and freshness. This is our first Single Vineyard release from the Hawkesbury Vineyard just outside of Wanaka. Here, the western proximity to the alpine spine of the South Island and Lake Wanaka ensures a more temperate climate with overall cooler and later ripening conditions than the Cromwell basin. Harvest one month earlier than usual for us meant we had to have our wits about us, and all the grapes were off and into the winery by early April. The warm early season also brought with it an abundance of fruit and I think we will look back at these wines with a fondness reminiscent of the glow that you feel at the end of a warm summer’s day. – PJ Charteris