Winemaker Notes
Open and expressive on the nose, with notes of wild hedgerow fruits, crushed rose petals and sun-warmed red cherry. The palate is finely tuned, with silky tannins and a pure dart of acidity framing and balancing out a core of summer berries, soft spices and a touch of biscuity vanilla. Long on the finish, this wine evokes warm summer evenings, strawberries nestled under shaded leaves and the lingering scent of barbecue smoke.
Versatility is this Pinot Noir’s calling card. It matches with a wide variety of foods, including lighter game meats (duck, rabbit), lamb, roasted vegetables, berries, herbs and almost anything chargrilled.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Enticing aromas of plums, orange peel and strawberries with hints of mushrooms that follow through to a medium body with soft, fine tannins and a fresh finish. Tangy and vivid at the end.
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Wine Spectator
Approachable and elegant, with a creamy quality to the seamless mix of maraschino cherry, framboise, lingonberry preserves and Earl Grey. Touches of loamy earth and cedar add an appealingly firming note on the finish. Drink now. 22,000 cases made, 1,500 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir is creamy and spicy, with poached strawberries, sumac, some oak that pokes through and plenty of chalky tannin. The wine feels a little "elbows and knees" currently; but the cuvée ages well, and this appears to have all it needs to go some distance in the cellar. It's light in frame but with persistent flavor. 13.5% alcohol. Rating: 90+
Cloudy Bay Vineyards, established in 1985, is today a partnership between champagne house Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and co-founder of Cape Mentelle Vineyards in Western Australia, David Hohnen. The Cloudy Bay team is committed to producing 'wines of region' and strives to enhance the pure, bracing flavors naturally afforded by the climate and soils of Marlborough. The winery and vineyards are situated in the Wairau Valley in Marlborough at the northern end of New Zealand's South Island. This unique and cool wine region enjoys a maritime climate with the longest hours of sunshine of any place in New Zealand. Cloudy Bay has estate vineyards located at prime sites within the Wairau Valley and long-term supply agreements with five Wairau Valley growers. The main varieties grown are Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
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.