Two Paddocks Pinot Noir 2018 

About the wine
The flagship from Two Paddocks – an organically grown barrel selection from the estate properties. In 2018 this wine was produced from the four Neill family Central Otago vineyards. These small sites are high-density planted in a range of clonal material cropped to under 5 Tonne per hectare with most vineyard practices carried out by hand. As in the vineyard, the wine is hand crafted using traditional methods including a 25% whole bunch, indigenous fermentation and hand plunging. Maturation is in French barriques for 10 months, using a mix of older and new (20%) barrels. Vegan friendly.

Vintage Comment:
Two Paddocks 2018 harvest will be remembered as the earliest picking date on record. A warm spring that quickly turned in to a hot summer with much warmer night time temperatures than are typically experienced in Alexandra. Ideal conditions over flowering, which was a month early, began on the 20^th November. Again, perfect growing conditions meant veraison also began a month early on the 20^th January. The extreme heat and dry finished abruptly on the 1^st February. Cooler temperatures over February / March thankfully slowed ripening down and intensified flavour development.  However, harvest still began nearly a month earlier than typical on the 14^th March and was over by the 11^th April. Both the grapes and stems were beautifully ripe, intensely flavoured and in perfect health.

Reviews
Burghound.Com USA, Allen Meadows, 80th Issue, 2020 Oct 2020 90 points

Wine Enthusiast - Editors’ Choice May 2020 94 Points

JamesSuckling.com Nick Stock Contributing Editor Oct 2019 93 Points