Q Class Pinot Noir 2022

Aged in French oak barrels to enhance its velvety tannins, this jewel-hued Q Class Pinot Noir offers an evocative bouquet of English hedgerow, from woodland bramble to delicate violet, rose and hints of cocoa. The palate displays warm earthiness, with supple tannins, and notes of wild raspberry leading to a generous finish.

Simpsons’ Wine Estate is committed to maintaining an exceptional level of still wine production, always seeking to deliver beyond expectations. The Q Class wines are only produced in exceptional years, in order to showcase the Simpsons’ hallmark of quality, luxury and finesse - combining unique terroir with meticulous viticulture and wine-making expertise.

This luxury pair of wines first came into fruition four years ago, spurred on by our “Best in Show” success at the Decanter World Wine Awards alongside being presented with the idyllic 2020 harvest conditions. We specially sourced an outstanding parcel of Pinot Noir on the Railway Hill Vineyard site, offering the perfect opportunity to push the boundaries of world class still wine production even further.

The Simpsons’ Railway Hill Vineyard is so called because the Canterbury to Folkestone light railway passed through this site in the late 19th and first half of the 20th Century. The Q Class engines, which traversed this line, were powerful yet elegant, qualities that are exemplified in this wine.

It was fortuitous that the 2022 growing season was blessed by a high level of sunshine and marked by a distinct lack of rainfall which resulted in beautifully ripe fruit flavours. The chalk-rich soils provided the vines with enough moisture to ensure a bountiful harvest and generosity in the resultant wines. With such high quality, we were inspired to create the second vintage of the Q Class wines.

A specially selected parcel comprising of four rows of vines of 777 Pinot Noir clones, was hand-harvested on 19th October 2022. This was the optimum harvesting window for the grapes, when they were presenting rich flavours and ripe tannins.

They were carefully hand-sorted and de-stemmed directly into fermenters via gravity. Once inoculated, the grapes underwent the traditional technique of pigéage (punch-down) before being gently pumped over twice per day.

The wine was drained off its skins into six one-year-old French oak barrels and two two-year old, heavily toasted American barrels, where it underwent malolactic fermentation. This decision was made in order to complement the rich fruit flavours of the Pinot Noir with the delicate spice characteristics of the French oak. In Spring 2023, after six months ageing in barrel, the wine was lightly filtered and bottled in Magnum format.