Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Polished blueberry and cherry compote flavors are fresh and show plenty of complexity as they mingle with matcha green tea, sandalwood and dried lavender notes. There’s plenty of precision here, with a long finish. Drink now through 2035.
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Amongst my group of wine pals, Otago always comes up when Pinot Noir becomes a discussion topic. The 2017 Innocent Bystander makes it way deliciously into this conversation. TASTING NOTES: This wine is fresh, active, and bright. Its aromas and flavors of berries and savory spices stay long and nicely on the palate. Pair this wine with a well-seasoned, grilled fillet of salmon. (Tasted: December 20, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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.