Winemaker Notes
Concentrated notes of black doris plum and dark red fruits combine with a complementary savoriness building layers of complexity into the wine. Structural, fine-grained tannins provide lovely weight and backbone which is framed with bright natural acidity and well integrated French oak.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Ripe strawberry with some earth and stone aromas that follow through to a medium to full body. Firm and polished tannins with black pepper and clove undertones to the finish. Very fine tannins to the texture. Sustainable. A few years of bottle age will let this unfold and give you more.
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Wine Spectator
Strikes an appealing balance between spiced notes of black cherry and juicy raspberry at the core and more nuanced accents of black pepper, firming fresh herbs and tomato leaf. Builds in concentration on the finish. Drink now. 8,870 cases made, 300 cases imported.
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.