Winemaker Notes
This is an inviting and generous wine which delivers a palette of flavours. On the nose, there is a pronounced intensity of ripe blueberry, with subtle notes of violet. Strawberry and red cherry notes are balanced with rich and concentrated texture. Velvet, fine tannins are completed by mushroom and leather hints. A complex and lingering wine with a spicy finish that will transport you to our windswept terroir.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A deep garnet color, this single-vineyard Pinot bursts with a beautiful array of aromas. The toasted baking spice, dried violet and milky coffee aromas mingle with supple dark berry fruit. The same supple fruit is at the fore on the satiny palate, tempered by a spine of savory, fine-grained tannins. It's primary and quite delicious now, especially after a quick decant, but could go the long haul until 2031.
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James Suckling
There’s almost a blueberry character to this young pinot, with ripe strawberry and flint undertones. Medium- to full-bodied with poised yet fine creamy tannins that run the length of the wine. Very refined and beautiful.
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.