Doctors Flat Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 $49.50 
I checked and it was almost exactly to the day that I published my review of Steve Davies, 2016 Doctors Flat Pinot Noir on this site. He fired through a bottle of the shiny new 2017 as soon as it was ready and far out am I chuffed that he did. Fruit growing in deep gravels and glacial soils, is hand harvested and a portion is thrown into the fermented in whole clusters (bunches) to inject a softer, fruitier layer and help naturally stabilise the colour of the wine. It also means those bunches are essentially fermenting inside their own skins and that brings an element of herbaceousness and tannin from the stems. Then fermentation was left to kickstart naturally with the wild yeasts present in the winery atmosphere and the wine was left on its skins for about a month to extract the perfect balance of colour and texture. It’s then matured in French oak barrels until the next winter before being bottled without fining or filtration. So that’s about 18 months after the harvest. The result is a fabulously wild and woolly wine, erupting with baked tamarillo, black tea and cherry notes. Saucy spices and a tweak of truffle on the finish adds to its complexity. The tannins are juicy and easy, and I just love it.
