Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2013
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Spectator
Wine - Decanter
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Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The nose leads with cinnamon, vanilla and more red fruits than the typical dark cherry from this warmer 2013 vintage. A soft and comforting mouthfeel that is broad and expansive. Being a blend of our three Bannockburn vineyards, this contributes various layers of generous ripe fruits and creamy textural elements. The wine has a pleasant rusticity to the structure adding complexity and depth. Hints of licorice on the long enveloping finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Supple wild berry, cherry and plum flavors are both powerful and delicate, with details of Earl Grey tea, white pepper, anise and crushed rock. Expansive and expressive, the finish sails on and on, with satiny tannins that never get in the way. Drink now through 2030.
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Decanter
Hedonistic Pinot nose: layers of floral spice, lovely, quite ripe fruit, something herbal and savoury, too; supple, with dark fruit flavours to the fore. Will reward cellaring.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2013 Pinot Noir has a funky nose with pleasant meaty / earthy characters over notes of blackberries and mulberries with black cherry, rose hip tea and Provence herb accents. Medium bodied with plenty of ripe red fruit lifted by a gentle herbal character in the mouth, it has a medium level of silky tannins and just enough acid, finishing long and earthy.
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Central Otago is located on the southern end of New Zealand's South Island (latitude 45º south) and shares with Oregon (45º north) similar viticultural challenges: late frosts in Spring, early frost in Autumn, a growing season that may be curtailed overnight. Yet the climates of both are surprisingly similar to Burgundy's Côte d'Or: hot in summer, cold in winter. Central Otago is New Zealand's only wine region with a continental - rather than maritime - climate, which results in greater diurnal and seasonal shifts in temperature.
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.”
Home to the globe’s most southerly vineyards, which are cultivated below the 45th parallel, Central Otago is a true one-of-a-kind wine growing region, but not only because of its extreme location.
Central Otago is more dependent on one single variety than any other region in New Zealand—and it isn’t Sauvignon blanc. They don’t even make Sauvignon blanc there.
Pinot Noir claims nearly 75% of the region’s vineyards with Pinot Gris coming in a far second place and Riesling behind it. This is also New Zealand’s only wine region with a continental climate, giving it more diurnal and seasonal temperature shifts than any other.
The subregion of Bannockburn has enjoyed the most success historically but the area’s exceptional growth has moved to the promising regions of Cromwell/Bendigo and Alexandra districts. Central Otago is known for its fruity and full-bodied Pinot noir. With the freedom to experiment here, growers and winemakers are easily exhibiting the area’s great potential.