Winemaker Notes
Medium-dark garnet. Floral, red cherries, slightly mushroomy on the nose. The bouquet reveals sweet and ripe dark cherry fruit, chocolate, and thyme. A balanced structure of bright round tannins. Good length and line.
Ideal with gamey meats, and rich tomato based dishes. It also suits salmon and lamb.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Earthier, darker and riper than the 2015, Big Sky's 2014 Te Muna Road Pinot Noir delivers black cherry and red currant aromas and flavors, plus a bit of humus-rich earthiness. It's medium to full-bodied, with a supple, creamy mouthfeel and some silky tannins and cola-like spice on the finish.
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.