Winemaker Notes
Number 22 on Wine Spectator's Top 100 of 2007!
Amisfield Vineyards is a producer of fine wine from the Lowburn area of New Zealand's Central Otago region. The region is renowned for producing world class Pinot Noir and aromatic white wines.
The 2005 Pinot Noir has a deep crimson/magenta color. The nose suggests candied fruits, intense dark cherry and mocha characters lifted by toasty french oak. The palate shows lovely sweet fruit and it also has a degree of restraint, in part due to our co-fermentation technique. The tannins are abundant but well resolved and fine. This wine should evolve into another graceful Amisfield Pinot and will reward cellaring for 5-8 years.
"Suave and ripe, with plush depth to Asian spice, roasted duck, wild berry and black cherry flavors. Crushed stone nuances, judicious oak and sinuous tannins streamline the stylish finish. Drink now through 2011."
Wine Spectator
93 Points
Professional Ratings
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.