Clos Henri Pinot Noir 2017
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A classic New Zealand Pinot Noir with a fine, pure and elegant nose, with plum, blackberry and spicy notes. This is a dense and concentrated Pinot Noir with subtle oak emerging on a layered savory palate balancing the plum and boysenberry flavors evolving towards a meaty character. Silky structure with well-integrated tannins, leading to a long finish.
A perfect pairing for herbed crusted lamb, duck, salmon or mature firm cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This biodynamic Marlborough producer's latest releases are on fire and none blazes brighter than this crazy affordable Pinot. Right off the bat it's balanced and limpid, needing no decanting and barely any swirling to reveal its charms. The aromas are layered and luminous in red fruit, savory spices, dried flowers and a crushed stone minerality. In the mouth, the pristine fruit is embraced by a filigree of talc-like tannins. There's elegance and poise amidst the quiet power of the fine grained tannins.
Editors' Choice -
James Suckling
There’s a very plush and attractively fresh feel here with a genuine sense of ripeness in the tannin department. The aromas of blue fruit, violets and sappy and earthy character are alluring and the palate is assured.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Clos Henri's 2017 Pinot Noir is an excellent effort. Its subtle florals and ripe black cherries are concentrated but restrained, balanced against a backdrop of loam, crushed stone and pencil shavings. Medium-bodied and silky on the palate, it's a wine made to complement food, not dominate it, with silky tannins and a long, gently textured finish. This French-owned property seems to be getting more and more consistent over recent vintages.
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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.”
An icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.