Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
As ever this has an extra dimension and remains the high watermark for New Zealand pinot noir to be measured against. How do they do it: complete and uncompromised dedication to the cause, combined with an early play to make the most of the available land in a young region, as well as the ability to attract talented and dedicated people such as winemaker Helen Masters to the cause. Already entrancingly complex, the wine has a brambly array of cherry and summer berry fruits in addition to blueberries, some spicy saffron and earthy nuances. It's totally composed and still able to deliver a sense of aromatic purity amid web-like complexity. As you swoon into the first mouthful, it takes total control and is plush and layered with an air of playful luxury. The center billows soft and deceptively airy, finishing in a run of succulent, fresh and satisfying tannins that leave you breathless. Drink now to 2025+.
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Jasper Morris
Starting to show some bottle development; sweetly fruited aromas of forest floor and game with button mushroom notes creeping in. Silky and soft with ripe tannins layered across the palate. Not the most powerful of pinots but very fragrant and floral. Lovely spine of acid supports.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Still rather firm in texture, the 2014 Pinot Noir offers up leafy, tomato-like notes that are nicely balanced by black cherries and earth. It's medium to full-bodied, then turns velvety on the long finish, with at least another decade of life ahead of it.
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.