Bindi Wines 'Dixon' Pinot Noir 2021 750ml

In 1853 Henry Reed Dixon came to Gisborne, a town his family would have a continuing connection to this day. Henry is the true ‘founder’ of the Dhillon migration to Gisborne and one of Michael’s distant relatives. From paymaster of the railway to real estate, farming and now winemaking, his family has had a significant presence in the growing community. ‘Dixon’ is formerly known as ‘Composition’ and really is a snapshot of the Bindi vineyard, based upon declassified grapes from the Original Vineyard planted in 1988 and grapes from the new Block K, planted in 2001. The idea of this wine is to produce a delicious, perfumed, spicy harmonious, textured wine that is not as intense, complex nor age-worthy as the individual block wines.

The grapes were hand-harvested and primarily destemmed with about 5% whole-bunch inclusion. The grapes and bunches were gently worked and fermented with ambient yeast in small, open vats. A combination of gentle hand plunging and very primitive ‘pumpovers’ was employed for gentle extraction. After roughly two weeks on skins the lots were pressed directly to French barriques, about 25% new, for maturation and in some cases to finish primary fermentation and malolactic fermentation. One very light addition of sulfur was employed in the spring and after a total of 10 months barrels were racked to tank to settle. The wine was bottled without fining or filtration and just another small addition of sulfur.