Lyme Bay Pinot Noir

Lyme Bay Winery is the home of LBW Drinks. This small, dedicated drinks company is full of people who are passionate about producing delicious and award-winning English Still and Sparkling Wine, Fruit Wine, Cider, Mead, Liqueur and Spirits from their home in Devon’s beautiful Axe Valley.

Here they combine their knowledge and love of flavours and ingredients with top notch wine-making skills to craft award-winning traditional drinks, tailored to the 21st-century palate. Each of these amazing products is fermented, blended and aged, as appropriate, on site at the Winery under the supervision of the LBW experienced team.

Vinification

100% Pinot Noir picked from the following vineyards; Martin’s Lane (Essex); Spar Hill (Essex); Riverview (Essex); Crows Lane (Essex); GW Cooper (Essex).

A cool summer was followed by a late warm spell into October, allowing for extended hang time on the vines, ensuring the grapes reached peak physiological ripeness. Hand harvested between 26th October and 3rd November from Dijon and Spätburgunder still wine clones, the grapes were treated by the vineyard as a field blend.

Small batch fermentations were undertaken with 10% whole bunch fruit, manual pigéage (punch downs) took place up to 3 times a day to gently maximise the extraction of colour, flavour, and structure. The wine was then transferred to barrel for 100% malolactic fermentation. 32% new French oak was used, as well as older barrels from French, Eastern European and American origins.

Aged for 11 months in barrel, the wine was then blended and left to settle several weeks before bottling. The wine has no fining, and only a light filtration to retain the delicate nuances of the fruit and oak.

Tasting Notes

Vibrant red fruit combines with smoky, vanilla oak and mild tobacco undertones on the nose. Red fruits dominate the palate with cherry, raspberry, and red currant with just a hint of mulberry. A touch of savoury spice and smoke finish off the rounded palate, with a lingering finish.

A great accompaniment to lamb dishes and also pairs well with game due to the slightly smokey and savoury notes in the wine.