Winemaker Notes
Hand picked, crushed into 2 tonne open fermenters, hand plunged, and judicious use of new oak in ageing. We make it to show off the delicious Te Muna fruit characters -- ripe berryfruit, dark cherries and plums –set against mouthfilling savoriness, warm spice, and silky tannins. Lithe and elegant.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Unlike most of the Te Muna district Pinots, Big Sky's 2015 Te Muna Road Pinot Noir is bright and red-fruited, hinting at strawberries and raspberries. It's delicate and medium-bodied in style, marked by silky tannins and a light, enchanting mouthfeel. It's maybe a bit too fruit forward, but it offers some gorgeous flavors.
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.