Winemaker Notes
Lovingly referred to as the 'Lockdown Vintage', 2020 offers balance and finesse. A rich nose of ripe plum and warm baking spices work together to draw you in. Vibrant cherry and boysenberry notes are balanced on the palate with a touch of well-integrated dusty tannins to build structure and a weight on the palate. A complex and lingering wine with a mineral finish that will transport you to their windswept terroir.
Professional Ratings
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
MY INTERNAL NOTES: (Tasted: March 31, 2024, San Francisco, CA) Deep garnet, black color; fragrant red and black fruits in the aroma, boysenberries, blackberries, and more; full bodied, firm and neatly packed on the palate, well-managed tannins; long finish. PUBLISHED NOTES: COMMENTARY: The 2020 Clos Henri Waimaunga Pinot Noir is an outstanding wine. Showing well-managed tannins, this wine offers aromas and flavors of bright berries and oak. Serve it with grilled lamb kebabs. (Tasted: March 31, 2024, San Francisco, CA)
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This 2020 Waimaunga Pinot Noir is from a single-vineyard plot within the estate and was grown on wind-blown clays. On the nose, this is rich and complex, with pomegranate molasses, crushed black pepper, hints of Earl Grey tea, red apple skins and cherry pip. In the mouth, the wine is excellent. There is complex, layered tannin with supple fruit that flows through, in and around the textural undulation. Classy to the very end. Highly recommended.
Rating:94+ -
Wine Enthusiast
Give this single vineyard, clay-grown Pinot time in decanter to open. When it does it's a beautifully complex wine. Blood plum and blueberry fruits are tempered by roasted dark chocolate, wild herbs and florals. The palate is chiseled and linear, held firm with chalk dust tannins, with balance, focus and a soft, silky edge to the fruit. This should age with grace for a decade or more.
Cellar Selection
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.