Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A significant pinot noir that displays immense quality, depth and completeness. Very complex exotic spices, meaty charcuterie and game meats too. There's a whole array of different cherry fruit characters, hints of citrus zest and saffron, foresty bracken too. The palate has immense energy and depth yet treads lightly on balanced structure and even shape. Tannins wind out and around supple flesh; they gather and fan at the finish, acidity is bright throughout and the finish holds long. A masterpiece. Commanding and seductive pinot noir at its finest. Drink in 2019.
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Decanter
Winery founder Clive Paton says 2013 has been called the vintage of a decade, perhaps the vintage of the past 30 years, but ‘time will tell’. Certainly the vintage conditions were near perfect, giving ‘pristine fruit and perfect balance’. Rich, deep, pure and concentrated, with hints of almond, violet and sweet spice to the juicy cherry fruit. Ata Rangi Pinot Noir 2013 has great length and acidity. Sacrilegious to drink it now, despite its deliciousness.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Savory, herbal and dark-fruited, the 2013 Pinot Noir is medium to full-bodied, quite supple but firm, with a backbone of wiry acids and a long, mouthwatering finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Power and grace combine in this tour de force from Helen Masters, Ata Rangi's winemaker. Toasty oak frames intense black cherry fruit, with hints of herbs adding a savory element. Firm tannins provide ample structure, while the lengthy finish prolongs the pleasure. Drink 2018–2025. Cellar Selection.
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Jasper Morris
This magnum not showing especially well, closed on the nose with some savoury, drying tannins cloaking the fruit. A solid wine, enhanced by some appealing orange peel and dried cranberry notes, but lacks the expressive character found in the more assured vintages.
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.”
Part of the Wairarapa region in the southern end of the country’s North Island, Martinborough is a bucolic appellation full of artisan, lifestyle wine producers. Above all else, their goals are to tend vineyards for low yields and create wines of supreme quality. Pinot noir is the main grape variety here, occupying over half of the land under vine.
Comparing topography, climate and soils, the region is nearly identical to Marlborough except that it produces top quality reds on the regular.