The influential Central Otago Dicey family have the own brand, ‘Ceres’ under which they released their first wine made in 2005. Robin Dicey is one of the districts important viticultural consultants who has been behind the establishment of so many top-performing vineyards. Robin has handed over much of the viticultural consultancy and work to his son James, who has forged his own reputation. And other son Matt is the founding winemaker at Mt Difficulty, and he has made many top award winning wines under that label and others. The Ceres wines are based on the family-owned Bannockburn vineyards, named ‘Inlet’, Black Rabbit’, ‘Full Circle’ and ‘Swansong’. The first releases were wines made from blends of fruit from these vineyards, the Pinot Noirs labelled ‘Composition’.
As the Diceys have seen the vines mature, they have come to understand the terroirs of each site, and they have begun bottling single vineyard white wines capturing the site expression. Now come the second release of the single vineyard Pinot Noirs, under ‘The Artists Collection’ which feature artwork by Odelle Morshuis, James Dicey’s wife. These are the flagship wines for Ceres, made from fruit and from vintages that are deemed worthy of this labelling. The first was an ‘Inlet’ Pinot Noir from 2015. Here, I review the 2016 ‘Inlet’ and ‘Black Rabbit’ vineyard Pinot Noirs, each bearing the unique artwork. The 5.26 ha ‘Inlet’ vineyard is on a river terrace above the Bannockburn inlet along Cairnmuir Road with loess soils over clay gravels, at an elevation of 225-245 m. The vines were planted in 2002. The 3.5 ha ‘Black Rabbit’ vineyard is on Cairnmuir Road with an elevation of 250-315 m. It has wind-blown loess over ancient schist. The vines were planted on 2002. www.cereswines.co.nz
