A very good Pinot for the price and a new vintage.

Could this be one of the best presented Central Pinot's currently on the market...   

We tasted this recently and were terribly impressed.  We normally are quite big fans of Domaine Thomson but there entry level Pinot Noir is anything but 'entry level'.

The grapes that go into our Explorer wine primarily come from the top terrace Moon Block (altitude 295m), 100% estate grown, certified organic and handpicked on the 3rd – 16th April. Stylistically, we are trying to place our more youthful vines into this wine as they tend to have a natural fruit driven exuberance which we wish to retain. Clonal mix = Clone 6 18%, 777 42%, 113 1%, 667 7% and 115 32%.

A typical ferment was 7-10 days cold soak at 6-10c, 7-10 days fermentation at 16-33c, 7-10 days post maceration at 22-30c. All ambient yeasts in 7 different ferments, hand plunged 2 times a day, 7% of the fruit was whole bunch to bring out lifted fruit aromatics and the remainder destemmed, not crushed. 100% of the wine went into our cuve and barrels for 10 months. Blackberry, guava, spice and violet aromatics lead to a fresh fruit driven palate showing lots of elegance, freshness and drive. Winery

"Dense, firmly structured and quite complex wine with dark cherry/berry, dark chocolate, fresh herb and subtle oak flavours. High-energy pinot noir with good cellaring potential" 94 points." Bob Campbell