A blend from all of our vineyard sites, Leah is named after Michael Seresin’s daughter. Exhibits bright, fragrant berry-fruit aromas, interlaced with spice and herbal notes. The wine is focused and concentrated, with a succulent fruit core, framed by fine-grained tannins and a mouth-watering acidity. An elegant and understated style with immediate appeal, but structure to last.

Vintage: A cool start to the year, with some late frosts, but the weather was settled for flowering and fruit set. The summer was warm and very dry, resulting in berries and bunches being smaller than average. Harvest took place in good conditions, resulting in fruit which showed aromatic ripeness as well as a balanced, fresh acidity.

Winemaking: The fruit was hand-picked, destemmed and cooled, the juice was warmed and fermented with wild yeast, and the caps hand-plunged daily during fermentation. The wine was left on skins for 4-5 weeks, then drained, lightly pressed and transferred to aged French oak barriques. The wine went through natural malolactic fermentation during 11 months maturation, before it was bottled lightly filtered and unfined.

Viticulture: The fruit comes mostly from the Noa vineyard, which is made up of Waimakariri type soils of alluvial origin, with a small amount also from the clay-rich hillside Raupo Creek vineyard in the OmakaValley.

VARIETIES: Pinot Noir

VINEYARD: 85% Noa, 15% Raupo Creek

OAK: 11 months

BOTTLING DATE: 21st October 2016

ALCOHOL: 13.5% RS: 1.5g/l

PH: 3.71

TA: 5.6 g/l

Total S02: 55ppm

SERESIN ESTATE LEAH PINOT NOIR 2015 Organic and biodynamic. Contains sulphites. Suitable for vegans and vegetarians..

Seresin Leah Marlborough Pinot Noir 2012 Reviews & Notes

James Suckling: 94/100. With a compelling, complex and fresh nose of blue fruits and ripe cherries, this has plenty of bracken and sous bois on the make. It's leafy too and the oak is gently played. The palate has impressive tannin articulation while the sturdy structure is the key, supporting ripe, dark fruit flavors in the plum to cherry spectrum. This holds long and is nicely done. Drink in 2016.

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW für Robert Parkers Wine Advocate: 90+ Parker points. Pale ruby colored with a touch of purple, the 2012 Leah Pinot Noir offers a slightly reduced nose of tires and tar over a good core of black cherries, pepper and Mediterranean herbs...quite tight-knit and reticent in the mouth with earth and herbal layers fleshing out the chewy tannins, crisp acid and long finish.

Michael Cooper: 4.5 stars. Unlike the single-vineyard reds, this immediately appealing, lower-priced wine is estate-grown at three sites: the Home Vineyard, Raupo Creek and Tatou, and is less new oak-influenced. The 2012 vintage (4.5*) was hand-picked, fermented with indigenous yeasts, matured for 11 months in French oak barriques (15 per cent new), and bottled without filtering. Full-coloured, it is fragrant, mouthfilling and savoury, with deep, youthful plum, cherry, spice and dried herb flavours, showing excellent ripeness and complexity.

ABOUT SERESIN ESTATE WINES

Estate grown grapes from organic and biodynamic vineyards are handpicked and transformed into artisan wines through gentle, traditional winemaking – wine of passion, grace and spirit. Acknowledging Seresin’s ongoing commitment to sound environmental practices as a winegrower, Seresin won the Marlborough District Council’s 2009 Marlborough Environment Award.

(SKU: SE_Lea_15)