We recently flew down to Alana Estate winery in Martinborough for the concert of John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow.
On arrival we were entertained with wines from Bollinger and Laurent-Perrier. These Champagnes are some of the best to come out of the region and I especially like the austere nature of the youthful RD 1995 by Bollinger. This wine has many exciting years ahead of it in the bottle.
We then toured the vineyard and winery for the next 2 hours and were given a detailed explanation of all aspects of Alana Estate past, present, and future.
The wines that are being made now are some of the best that Martinborough can offer. The Pinot Noir impresses me a great deal with rip fruit and good levels of acid offset by good use of oak.
The oak in these wines is not there to dominate but compliment and it manages to do it perfectly. There are very beautiful aspects to all of the different clones in the vineyard and when combined seem to make fantastic Pinot Noir. You get more savoury components from Martinborough than Central Otago and less of the over blown ripe fruit. The wines are clean without being too clinical.
The vineyards are carefully maintained by a dedicated team and the winery was spotless all adding to the nature of the business here at Alana. The winemaker took time out of his day to entertain us and the marketing manager made sure the stay was first class.
Throughout the day we managed to taste our way through most of the wines made here and also some back vintages where we were able to see some great and exciting developments in wine making.
On another note, John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow were fantastic and really made the day.
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