Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley

Description

Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley is an outstanding vintage for Syrah in the Yarra Valley. The grapes benefited from the longer hang time provided by a cool January and February, allowing flavours to fully develop.

This winery changed hands in May 2016, with one family company, Brown Brothers, taking it off the hands of another, its founder, Phil Sexton. So associated is Innocent Bystander with the Yarra Valley that the new owners decided to build a new cellar door in Healesville, just across the parking lot from Giant Steps, but the wines are now being made at the Brown Brothers winery in Milawa, just 200 kilometres north of the Yarra Valley. They quickly signed contracts with all of the grape growers that Phil used for Innocent Bystander, so that the style of the wines remains unchanged.

Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley style is typical wines that are regional and varietal, reflecting the soil, cool climate and topography of the Yarra Valley – has been the base upon which the reputation of Innocent Bystander has been built. Their subtle Chardonnay has the attractive depth thanks to barrel fermentation, yet is fresh and lifted, offering a lot for a wine at this price. The Syrah – peppery, spicy and nicely defined – is also a steal. The Pinot Noir, which marries bright red fruit aromas with earthy notes, also punches above its weight. The Pinot Gris attractively combines the zestiness that comes from half the blend being fermented in stainless steel with the texture that is derived from the rest being fermented in old oak.

Whole bunches were used in batches at varying percentages based on fruit structure and source. The overall blend incorporates 20% whole bunches. A 10 day cold soak on the skins was followed by fermentation in stainless steel, open top fermenters with mainly indigenous yeast strains. Variations of hand plunging, pigeage and ‘drain and return’ were applied to the ferments, the frequency varying from parcel to parcel. Fermentation peaked at 32°C. The wine was then matured for twelve months in French oak barriques and puncheons (of which 10% were new) during which time malolactic fermentation was allowed to take place.