Onannon

A little while ago, our dear friend Jack (aka our enabler), gifted us quite a special bottle of wine and it feels like it would be remiss of me not to talk about it here.
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​I had to do a little bit of internet searching to find out a bit more about it, but I always love finding out geeky facts about wine production.

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The Onannon Pinot Noir 2016 from South Gippsland in Australia.  A blend of two vineyards, with the two parcels being fermented separately (but using the same vinification process)​, then blended prior to bottling.  Fruit is hand-picked and de-stemmed and fermented using wild yeasts.  It undergoes natural malolactic fermentation on the lees (yeast) and spends 10 months in barrel.

On the pour, the wine looked aged - like the colour had been drained from it (red wine loses colour as it ages, white gains colour), but in the centre of the glass the colour was concentrated and beautifully oxygenated.  Like the colour of dried blood and dried fruit.

On the nose, I got wild strawberries, meat and a slight smokiness.

On the palate, structured but subtle tannins, an undercurrent of almost salty acidity, raspberries, sour cherries, a sort of iron-like meatiness and a slight herbaceous quality.

It was a joy to drink, and especially when sometimes pinot noir can be a little one note for me - it's a great example of when a grape is treated right and aged well, it can become more than a sum of its parts.  Thanks Jack.  Keep enabling...