£56.70 per bottle
Mix any 6 - 10% off
Two Paddocks was established in 1993 by Kiwi actor, Sam Neill, who was raised in the South Island of New Zealand. Initially, Sam bought a paddock in Gibbston and aimed to grow a small amount of his favourite grape – Pinot Noir – with the hope of producing enough wine for his friends and family.
The Fusilier Vineyard is named in honour of Sam’s father, Major Dermot Neill, a soldier in the Royal Irish Fusilier Regiment for 20 years before returning home to Dunedin, New Zealand, where he ran the family Wine & Spirit business, Neill & Co. Planted entirely in 2000, The Fusilier is 5.6 hectares of pinot noir, on rolling northerly facing terraces at the western end of Felton Rd and bordered by the vineyard of the same name. Soils on the terraces consist of deep alluvial fans, which are made up of varying depths of silt, sand and gravel layering all derived from mountainous raw schist parent material.
Tasting Note: Blackberry, dark plum and spicy wild herb aromatics lead to an elegant, mineral derived palate showing great texture, poise and drive
2020 Vintage Comments: A dry cold 2019 winter continued into a dry spring that was dominated some severe wind and snow events. The critical flowering month of Dec was relatively cool and experienced 50mm of rain over three days. As a result, flowering was both late and drawn out. Finally, the summer heat arrived in mid-January and lasted until mid-March but the critical cell division stage for the berries was also cool and along with the challenging conditions at flowering, resulted in crop levels being 30-40% down in many of the vineyard blocks. Smaller bunches and small berries were much easier for the vines to fully ripen in late summer and ultimately resulted in densely coloured, aromatic wines. 2020 harvest was also one of the most compact that Two Paddocks and The Fusilier was harvested on the 16th April.
