Daphne Vineyard is the Eyrie estate’s highest, located at the top of the hill and reaching 262 metres at its highest point. Planted in 1974 to the Pommard clone, it’s home to just 0.6 hectares of Pinot Noir vines and produces intensely favoured wines from low yields of tiny bunches. Its location at the crest of a hill means its soils are very shallow, averaging less than ten inches of topsoils above large stone boulders.
Daphne Vineyard Pinot Noir is one of five identically produced wines from Eyrie’s vineyards. The collection represents a fascinating journey from 67 metres (Sisters Vineyard) to 260 metres’ (Daphne Vineyard) elevation in the Dundee hills, viewed through the Eyrie lens. Jason Lett describes the 2019 autumn as one of the most Burgundian he has ever seen in the Valley, meaning the rain and cooler days that usually occur in the winter arrived earlier and were more evenly spread. It was a moderate season with good acid retention across the board, something Eyrie values deeply. Handpicked fruit was destemmed and fermented naturally in small open-top, 11-hectolitre fermenters. Ferments were hand-plunged twice daily before being lightly pressed and aged in primarily old oak (12% new) barrique and foudre for 23 months.