By Thorne and Daughters
2022 'Copper Pot' Pinot Noir

Producer Notes
We first began producing our Copper Pot Pinot Noir as a dedicated wine for our family's hotel, Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse, in the KZN Drakensberg. Since then, the wine has taken on a life of its own, and we feel very privileged to be able to work with this cultivar in one of South Africa's best Pinot Noir growing regions. We love Pinot Noir for its supple, delicate power and its ability to elegantly and honestly express its origins. We take to heart the challenge of producing a great wine from this exacting varietal, and like so many other lovers of Pinot Noir, you will often find a bottle on our table. We vinify the wine as sympathetically as possible with wild yeasts, a percentage of whole cluster ferments, and maturation in older oak barrels.

Vineyard Notes
Our 2022 Pinot Noir is sourced from a handful of vineyards in the Western Cape region, where good soils (predominantly clay/shale and quartz/sandstone) and cool growing conditions combine to produce wonderful Pinot Noir that is both rich and perfumed. We also source from a small parcel of Pinot Noir in the Bottelary Hills on decomposed granite soil.

Winemaking Notes
Pinot Noir has always played a role in our work in wine, and it is a grape that we are very passionate about. We try to be as precise as possible when picking the grapes, allowing for a generous fruit maturity without losing the freshness and tension we love in the wines. Our winemaking is as minimal as possible. All our ferments take place using wild yeasts, and we don't use any additives (other than minimal SO2 at crush and during maturation). 40 to 60 percent of whole clusters are used in the fermentation to bring a natural structure and savouriness to the wines. Extraction is kept very gentle utilizing a combination of pump-overs and punchdowns, and the wines spend 30 to 45 days on skins in total to allow a gentle evolution of their structure. The wines are matured for nine months in a mix of older, small French oak barrels to avoid a dominant oak character, and their structure is rounded out before blending and bottling. Our focus during maturation is to retain a brightness and clarity of fruit that we really appreciate in Pinot Noir.

Technical Details
Vintage: 2022
Residual Sugar: 1.50 g/L
Total Acidity: 5.50 g/L
pH: 3.57

Tasting Notes
Our 2022 Pinot Noir has a perfumed nose showing mulberries, cranberries, rosewater, and fine herbal tones. Tannins are fine, while the palate is rich and complex, balancing savory notes of wood spice mixed with plums, red currants, and blood orange.
[Information provided by Thorne and Daughters]

2022 Thorne and Daughters Copper Pot Pinot Noir
Rating: 90
Producer: Thorne and Daughters
Wine Region: South Africa, Western Cape
Variety: Pinot Noir
Color / Type / Sweetness: Red / Table / Dry
Importer Information: Vine Street Imports
Reviewed by: Anthony Mueller
Drink Date: 2025 - 2032
The 2022 Copper Pot Pinot Noir displays a red-fruited profile with mineral tension and a fine tannic edge. The wine is slightly chewy and needs some time to come around. Currently, the wine displays fresh ripe fruit and dusty black tea tannins that will loosen with time in the bottle. [...] the wine aged in well-seasoned French oak for nine months [...].
Published: May 09, 2024

2022 Pinot Noir Copper Pot
Producer: Thorne and Daughters
Place of Origin: South Africa, Swartland
Color: Red
Grape/Blend: Pinot Noir
Rating: 88
Drinking Window: 2023 - 2030
From: The A to Z of South Africa (Nov 2023)
The 2022 Pinot Noir Copper Pot comes from several sources, designed to make a Village Cru level. Seccombe describes it as a 'side project' that has since expanded. [...] matured in used oak. There's light red cherry and crushed strawberry fruit on a straightforward, slightly rustic nose. The palate is medium-bodied with light tannins, gentle grip, raspberry mixed with cranberry fruit, and a slightly earthy finish.
By: Neal Martin on August 2023