Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Burn Cottage Vineyard Pinot Noir is a wine of tremendous appeal and seduction. Herb-tinged black cherries and cola notes appear on the nose, while the medium to full-bodied palate is rich and silky, lined with plush yet well-defined tannins that support the fruit and linger on the long finish. It's approachable now, but it should drink well for a decade or more.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: While there has always been a buzz about Central Otago Pinot Noirs, the battle between regions in the world has been so intriguing and sometimes out-of-control. Can there be a best Pinot Noir region? The 2016 Burn Cottage Vineyard is making a strong case that Central Otago reigns supreme. TASTING NOTES: This wine is authentic. Its savory, earthy, and wild strawberries in the nose and the flavors are persistent and beautiful. Pair it with lamb chops over a bed of organic kale. (Tasted: September 18, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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.