Place of Changing Winds - Annus Horribilis 2020 750ml

“Everyone will have a story to tell about the year 2020. Some will be far worse than others. A year already challenging enough for the team at Place of Changing Winds was made even worse when a terrible frost wiped out something like three-quarters of their Pinot Noir and 100% of their Chardonnay. In Rob’s words, “In the context of a global pandemic, I don’t want to overstate things, but it hurt us badly. The 2019 harvest had been our first vintage release, and we had been so excited to see what 2020 would bring. Mother Nature broke our hearts (and almost broke the bank).”

On the spring night of October 1st, with budburst just beginning, the temperature plummeted to below -3°C at about midnight, and it stayed there for six hours. It was a freak frost. Despite the team’s best efforts—running the frost fans and lighting fires—pretty much all the buds and any young growth was destroyed, and with them went the crop. In the end, the battered POCW Pinot vines produced a minuscule 50 grams of fruit per vine on average, from 28,000 productive vines. The result was barely enough fruit to produce 100 dozen bottles of wine." - Place of Changing Winds

Style / Variety: Pinot Noir
Region: Macedon Ranges, VIC
ABV: 12.0%
Vol: 750ml