At Foxes Island, we believe excellence comes with preparation, tenacity, and patience. A truly great wine also requires time, a precious commodity we cannot manipulate, but must respect and endure.
Bringing the Icon Series from concept to fruition has been a life's passion for Founder and Winemaker John Belsham to identify the ideal site and clones and then plant and allow the vines time to grow, and mature.
Unique in its design, Le Renard Pinot Noir is made from the Dijon clone 115. Single Dijon clones do not usually make a complete wine, however 115 is the exception. The clone performs extremely well in the ancient soils of the Awatere Valley, in southern Marlborough and thrives in the dry region's warm days and cool nights.
The grapes have a strong purplish color, a high pH, and notable tannins which are round, rich, supple, and very ageable. The grape delivers flavors of blue, red, and dark red fruits, rose, leather, and exotic spice that give depth and intrigue to the final wine.
The 2012 vintage, is a very artfully structured wine that is powerful yet elegant. The warm growing season allowed the tannins in the grape to fully ripen providing a strong architectural framework. A wine of the land with a special terroir, the juice was fermented with indigenous yeast that lives in the vineyard, providing a unique fingerprint to the wine, exclaiming that Le Renard can only come from one specific place in the world, the Belsham Awatere Estate.
Aged in small French oak barrels, the wine has generous layers of flavours for depth and dimension.
The wine had no fining and settled on its own, yielding a naturally vegan wine.
Le Renard Pinot Noir was released in July 2024 and can be enjoyed today or further cellared for the next 15 to 20 years.
Limited availability.
