Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir 2010
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep ruby-purple colored, the 2010 Block 3 Pinot Noir has notes of black cherries, plums, graphite, red currant, damp loam and dark chocolate with a whiff of anise. Elegantly fruited in the medium bodied mouth, it is tight-knit and restrained at the moment offering muscular blackberry fruit, a medium-firm level of fine grained tannins and a long earthy finish. Approachable now, it should drink best 2012 to 2019+.
93+ Points -
Wine Enthusiast
Winemaker Blair Walter has dialed up the intensity in this powerfully concentrated bottling, which packs ample black-cherry fruit and sturdy notes of hickory smoke, cured meat and dark coffee. Despite the wine’s considerable weight, the tannins are supple enough to make it approachable now.
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Wine & Spirits
Luxuriously rich, this pinot noir coasts through dark extract while shining a bright carmine red light over its full fruit. The flavors range from blackberry to plum skin, pulled back into light by a floral character. Felton Road farms its Elms Vineyard under biodynamics, selecting this benchland parcel for its deep sandy loam, an alluvial fan derived from schist under a layer of loess. Block 3 consistently produces one of the great pinot noirs of Central Otago.
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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.