Our First Twenty Years and a New Release.

Marquis & Dianne began the Burn Cottage journey in 2002, and the ensuing 20 years have moved by at a rapid pace. It’s hard to believe we are releasing the 12th vintage of Burn Cottage Vineyard Pinot Noir.

When we set up the Burn Cottage Vineyard our aim was to focus on Biodynamic viticulture to craft a World Class Pinot Noir, that truly expresses our parcel of land in Central Otago. We believe the vineyard is achieving this and are humbled by the recognition we are receiving locally and internationally for our wines.
 

The vines are now well settled into their place and producing Pinot Noir that we believe has more complexity, structure, and character year on year.

To ensure we are capturing the character of the site, we treat each block within the vineyard as its own stand-alone wine, with each of the nine Pinot Noir blocks being handpicked, sorted, fermented, and aged in their own French oak barrels.

Claire and the team spend time in January each year tasting through the individual parcels from the previous year and deciding the percentage from each block that will go into the final wine. We believe this is the best way for us to create our single vineyard Pinot Noir, reflecting the character of the site and the personality of the vintage.

For reasons that don’t need explaining, 2020 vintage was a somewhat uncharted work environment, where harvesting restrictions were in place, and keeping within our little bubble became part of everyday life. We had a small crop in 2020, which made things a tad easier for the vineyard and winery teams.

The start of the season was quite changeable with cooler weather patterns coming through the region, and bringing with it some much-needed rainfall. We then saw the warm summer weather appear in January and February, along with some pockets of moisture. The start of March coincided with a lovely mild period, which greatly benefitted the Pinot Noir, allowing slow and gentle ripening to occur, which preserved the wonderful balance of fruit flavours, tannin, and acidity.

The Pinot Noir we crafted from the 2020 vintage has beautiful balance and a seductive aroma of sun ripened Central Otago cherries mixed with bolder bramble notes and topped off with just a hint of spice.

The palate also delivers a lovely blend of bright red fruit flavours, along with darker, richer savoury notes, beautifully balanced by the finely textured tannins and this all comes together with a long and elegant finish.

We adore the 2020 Burn Cottage Vineyard Pinot Noir and only wish nature had given us a bit more Pinot Noir to craft more of this exciting wine. This is a wine that we are rightly proud of and whilst exciting now, it will cellar for a decade or more.
 
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As always, we truly appreciate all your support of our family-owned winery.

Kind regards

Andy and the Burn Cottage Crew