Winemaker Duncan Forsyth has worked with many of the region’s top estates as well as in Oregon, Germany and California. In late 2003 he teamed up with John Buchanan and they took on Mount Edward Winery in 2004. Maverick, revolutionary, genius, ingenious, insubordinate, dynamo, pioneer and avant-garde. These are just a few words that have been used to describe Duncan Forsyth, winemaker at Mount Edward wines. Mount Edward Ted Pinot Noir has aromas of dark berry fruits, spice, savoury tones and thyme and a sinewy palate full of bright fruit flavours with a delicate herbal thread throughout its length.At Mount Edward the winemaking approach is traditional. They are organically certified in both vineyard and winery, but they aren’t registered as an organic exporter with MPI so can’t claim the wines to be organic in the EU market. They use natural yeasts and minimal intervention at all stages to produce wines which reflect the vintage from which they came. The Central Otago climate and soils are unique with the parent rock being glacially derived schist. Most of the soils having been cultivated only a few times in the 100 years before the viticulturists arrived, and some not at all. The growing season is warm and dry with cool nights. It is a short season however, with a risk of frost early and late and they actively restrict crop levels managing the vine canopy to achieve balance and uniform ripeness regardless of variety.The wine is vinified using open top fermenters, hand plunging, natural yeasts, and aged during eleven months spent in French oak of which 20% is new and then it is racked and settled in tank for a further three months. Fermentation was carried out using de-stemmed fruit. It is fabulous with smoky pork loin or bbq’d salmon.