Clifford Bay Marlborough Pinot Noir 2010
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Wine Spectator
Robust, offering plenty of fresh black cherry and plum flavors that are extremely juicy and intense, with cigar box and spice details and firm tannins.
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Wine Enthusiast
This chunky, beefy Pinot Noir offers plenty of flavor for a realistic price. Hints of smoke, violet and tomato leaf add complexity to the black cherry fruit. The finish is long and lightly dusted with tannins. Editors' Choice.
Named for the sparkling bay where the Awatere River meets the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean, Clifford Bay blends the best of the South Island’s famed Marlborough fruit to produce classic Sauvignon Blancs with signature freshness and distinctive aromatics.
The Marlborough region is home to diverse landscapes: from expansive flat valleys in the Wairau Valley sub-region to the windswept mountains of the Awatere Valley. Sauvignon Blanc grapes are sourced from estate and grower vineyards in each of these distinct Marlborough sub-regions to produce Clifford Bay’s refreshing Sauvignon Blancs that emphasize the lively, tropical fruit flavours of the Wairau Valley.
Since its founding in 1994 Clifford Bay has specialized in Sauvignon Blancs that are finely balanced, refreshing and pure, and which reflect the best of Marlborough and its active, coastal lifestyle.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
An icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.