Muddy Water Pinot Noir Waipara 1999
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Waipara has recently been granted separate appellation status by the New Zealand Wine Institute because of its very special mesoclimate.
The climate is typified by hot dry summers and long sunny autumns leading to the production of intensely flavoured ripe grapes.
Several soil types are found in the area- Muddy Water has loam over calcarious clay on limestone bedrock.
The company is family owned and headed by Michael and Jane East with the philosophy that only premium wines will be produced.
All the wine is of reserve standard due to very low cropping levels and intense canopy management. All the grapes are hand picked and estate grown. Careful extraction of the juice follows, with fastidious attention to detail during the whole of the vinification process.
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.”
At the southern end of the North Island about an hour drive from New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington, Wairarapa’s producers are mainly small-scale, lifestyle winemakers. The region holds less than 3% of the country’s acreage under vine but nearly one tenth of its winemakers.
Considering topography, soil and climate, Wairarapa is similar to Marlborough except that it is better at producing Pinot noir. Martinborough is a main subregion.