Pinot Noir - 2017 - Ivan et Margaret Sutherland

100% Pinot Noir, from vines farmed organically and drawn from six plantations of different clones, the oldest of which dates back to 1983. Yields are kept down to 35 hl/ha, and grapes are harvested by hand, with strict sorting of the bunches. Vinification: 75% destemmed grapes are fermented with indigenous yeasts in small open-topped stainless steel vats, without any punching down of the cap or pumping over. A three-week maceration is followed by pressing and 18 months of maturation in French oak barrels, with 35% new oak. Neither fined nor filtered, and sensible use of sulphites.

Ivan and Margareth Sutherland is a pioneering couple that ranks among the first winegrowers to plant vines in the mid-1970s in the Marlborough area of New Zealand, located in the northern reaches of the South Island, making Dog Point one of the oldest privately owned vineyards in the region. While working at the Cloudy Bay vineyard and contributing to its fame, Ivan met James Healy and his wife Wendy. The two couples realised they shared much in common – notably their philosophy of viticulture. And so they decided to join forces and found Dog Point, marketing their first wines in 2004 made from the fruit of the 2002 vintage. In 2009, the two couples started converting the vineyard to organic viticulture, and from that point on, a wave of positive change would transform the estate on every level: buckwheat was planted between the vine rows, sheep were brought in to graze on the estate and add organic matter to the soil, beehives were introduced around the vineyard, etc... Today, the impassioned efforts of these four Pinot Noir enthusiasts have certainly borne fruit, earning Dog Point international recognition for the quality of its wines.