A complex nose showing layers of black cherry, cinnamon and cedar. The palate is spice driven with vibrant red cherries supporting the denser more concentrated dark fruits. The weighty structure provides a solid backbone to the wine which follows through to a long cassis and cocoa finish.
Because we believe in expressing our unique site from which our wines are born, the ultimate test for a winemaker is to make wines without any cosmetic refinery, i.e. no fining, no filtration, no preservative. Just grapes. For us it also means that only organically certified grapes are used in the making of the wine, it is bottled without filtration and nothing is added or taken away from the wine during its creation.
These wines could not be possible without the care and attention of our vineyard team. At Carrick we manage the vineyards using a small team who prune, weed and train the vines each season by hand, allowing for a tailored approach to each parcel. The Billet-Doux comes from Bill's Vineyard which is on the other side of Cairnmuir Road. It is a mix of clones 5, 6 and 13, hand-harvested and destemmed. It spends 9 months in old French oak barriques before bottling under cork closure at the winery.
Origin: Arthur's Vineyard, Carrick, Bannockburn, Central Otago Hand-picked in: April 2019 Additions: None Filtration and/or Fining: None TSO2 at bottling: <10mg/L Bottled: January 2020 Cases: 725 x 6 bottle cases
Smooth, red-fruited, showing great flow, form and energy