Ocean Eight Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula

Description

Ocean Eight Pinot Noir is an Australian red wine produced from grapes grown in the Mornington Peninsula wine-growing region located south of Melbourne, Victoria. The area is renowned as a cool climate wine-growing area, producing particularly fine Pinot Noirs.

The winemaker for Ocean Eight wines is Mike Aylward who produces stunning cool climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, taking influence from the great Old World wine regions of Alsace and Burgundy. The state-of-the-art, gravity fed winery is located at 271 Tucks Road in Shoreham on the Mornington Peninsula. All grapes picked for this small production come from the Aylward’s 17 Hectares of vines. The winery is managed by Michael & Hollie Aylward whose passion originated over a decade ago with a part-time job at the family’s previous winery Kooyong. Since then Ocean Eight has evolved into the couple’s full-time obsession. The house style errs towards lean, bright & tight wines with lovely acidity at the finish.

The vineyard that the Pinot Noir for the Ocean Eight Pinot Noir is sourced from is one of the most northerly on the Mornington Peninsula landmass. The Pinot Noir clones planted here are known as 114, 115 and MV6 which were planted in 1999. The top 30cm soil profile is made up of 20% sand, 65% silt and 15% clay. These silty loams are also known as brown chromosols and are defined by their moderate fertility and water holding capacity. Situated at an elevation of 65 metres with a north-western orientation, the vineyard has a great airflow, which minimises disease pressure as the canopy dries quickly. The soil is sandy loam which provides excellent drainage, essential nutrients for vine health and imparts minerality to the flavour profile. 

After harvest the grapes are destemmed into 3 tonne, open top steel fermenters where they undergo a period of cold soaking for up to 72 hours before fermentation. Fermented is with indigenous yeasts at 25-32C for approximately three weeks. After this the must is then lightly pressed into 3 or 4 year old, 500 litre French oak puncheons and matured for 12 months while undergoing malolactic fermentation. There follows a slow, gentle racking allows for no fining agents or filtering.

Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.