Awards: Bronze Medal, Class 8, 2000 Mudgee Wine Show

This is a unique wine that is available Mail Order and Cellar Door only due to very limited supply. It is made from just 100 vines on the Abercorn vineyard that have somehow survived replanting programs.

It is only made in suitably cool years (in warm years the fruit is blended into other products) and there is usually just one barrel made.

The year 2000 proved a very cool year that was also wet. Pinot Noir is the earliest ripening variety at Abercorn so was the only variety to miss autumnal rains Ð hence this wine is the only reserve wine made from 2000.

Sugar levels at harvest were 13.5 beaume, acid was 5 g/litre with a pH of 3.62.

The fruit was foot-crushed with most of the stems removed. (An interesting sidelight is that the crushing was performed by local virgins Nikki Harwood and her daughter Tara.)

Towards the end of ferment the wine was run into a one year old French barrique, where it remained for 12 months. High Sulphur Dioxide were maintained following ferment to ensure fruit and varietal characters were maintained through the following Summer.

It was bottled after fining but no filtration. It is truly a winemakers joy to make, mature and drink this special wine.

A medium-bodied wine, the 2000 Abercorn "A Reserve" Pinot Noir shows some varietal characters, unusual in Mudgee Pinot Noir. It is soft, shows the classic Pinot velvet palate, but without the high acid levels of more classical and longer lived Pinot Noir from Burgundy and Tasmania. It will improve with cellaring for a further 3-8 years.

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