Joan 2020 Pinot Noir by Sigurd

The Joan project is inspired by Sigurd’s Daughter, Dan’s Grannie, Joan.

Born in the Riverland in South Australia, she knew no bounds – travelling state by state and into the world. With strength in character, Joan has a history of stone fruit and grape farming in her blood; her father Sigurd survived two wars and worked his settlement block with his family, where he and his wife Jean housed their 4 children, one of which was Joan.

Joan later married Bruce Graham from Loxton, and together they ran a mixed farming block, from propagation, to picking, to drying. Of the 5 of Joan and Bruce’s children, Dan’s father Ralph took to the block the most, taking to the artistry of winemaking, where Dan now follows in his footsteps.

With these wines we wanted to deliver something that would be worthy of dedication to the name, Joan. With fruit from an organic block in the Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills, these wines carry a certain elegance, and authenticity, continued through their journey in the winery. 98 years old, this is an ode to the humble and hardworking, though poised and refined woman that is Joan, may these wines age as gracefully and be as long living as Joan herself.

2020 Pinot Noir

The Pinot Noir was picked from the same block a week earlier than the Chardonnay, from a cool protected area in a gully which protects the fruit and retains natural acidity. The fruit was hand picked, all at once, across 3 parts of the blocks with 3 different clones, 114/115 and MV6 all offering a different layer to the wine. 

In the winery, all the fruit is destemmed to retain whole berries, and then some of the stalks were added back to the ferment (around 10%) to create some stalk tannin for structure. Fermented in 1000L wooden vats with a wooden board on top to keep the skins submerged during the fermentation. Pressed off to stainless steel and then racked to 50% new french hogshead and 50% old french hogsheads for elevage. This is racked off lees after 16 months in barrel to tank for another 6 months. A small addition of sulfur is added to the tank before being bottled. This wine delivers wild mushroom and forest berries on the nose with well integrated cedary oak, long soft tannins on the palate with the wild forest berries coming through, a long flavour profile which opens up even more after being decanted and left for an hour before drinking. 

Drink now and enjoy for the next 15 years.

Vineyard: Greg Willsmore
pH: 3.65
TA: 5.8 g/l
Alc/Vol: 12.5%
Clones: MV6, 115, 114