Mount Mary Pinot noir vines were sourced from Western Victoria in 1971. This material was acquired before individual clonal selections were considered, and as such, our older Pinot blocks are a mix of many clones. A visiting French ampelographer (vine expert) once told John Middleton (Founder) that there were in the order of 30+ clones in our original Pinot block. Subsequent plantings of Pinot on this site have been selected from the original block, and the clonal selection has been somewhat refined. There are also some newer blocks of Pinot noir planted (as of 2008) to American rootstocks and are of specific clonal material, namely MV6 and 777. In the winery, the emphasis is on simplicity. By today’s standards, relatively short fermentations are employed, typically 8-10 days. This is followed by 16 months of barrel maturation consisting of 25% new oak barriques. Minimal, if any, fining and filtration are carried out prior to bottling.