Canaan Chapter and Verse Mastery Pinot Noir 2017

Canaan Chapter and Verse Mastery Pinot Noir is among China's best Pinots. Medium red gem colour. Opens with a nose of stewed cherries, plums and spice. The fairly lean bodied palate is dry with fine tannins, good balance and a lifted velvety texture. Juicy red cherries and ripe plum flavours over subtle coffee oak spices and hints of tobacco.

Fun Fact: 

Canaan Winery uses the label "Shi Bai Pian" in order to avoid confusion with the brand Kanaan in the Ningxia region. The term "Shi Bai Pian" (translates directly as "A Hundred Poems") was coined by acclaimed Chinese poet Du Fu from the Tang Dynasty when he composed the poem 'Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup'.

Basically, elite scholars and influential people in the Tang Dynasty loved to gather and drink fine wines together. This inspired Du Fu to write 'Ode to Eight Wine Immortals', a humorous piece that pictures eight of his contemporaries (well respected men who were politicians, poets, musicians and calligraphers) as huge drunks.

Canaan uses the name "Chapter and Verse" as an English tribute to "Shi Bai Pian". It celebrates the creative and devoted vignerons who made fine wines possible and also shares the story of Canaan's passionate people who have been toiling all year round to bring you the best of what nature has offered them.

100% Pinot Noir. The fruit for this wine comes from Canaan Winery's 600 hectare vineyards in Huailai, Hebei. Historical documents reveal that there have been over 1,200 years of grape growing records within Huailai. Huailai is adjacent to Guan Tin Lake, a water body of 290 square km surface, that serves as a natural air temperature regulator. Mountain ranges situated to the north and south of Canaan vineyards channel seasonal NW dry air from the North, which substantially reduces disease pressure to the grape vines. The vineyard sites that produce Pinot Noir sit at an altitude of 920–1,050 metres and have high gravel, sandy loam soils.

Cold soaking of the fruit for 2–3 days; 7–10 days maceration; Malolactic fermentation in barrel; the wine then ages in French oak barrels for 14 months.

AWARDS & ACCOLADES

The 2017 Mastery Pinot Noir (92 points) from an elevated vineyard at around 1,000m above sea level is among China’s best pinots with its Marlborough-like purity and ethereal forestry fruit.

 - 91 POINTS