Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
A grand pinot, its flavors compressed until they pour out into the finish. Floral black cherry balances the earthy tones of the tannin, like a wash of river stones across the youthful fruit. The flavors are long and sophisticated, with enough succulence to carry them for several years of maturation in the cellar. Built to last.
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Wine Spectator
Bright and jazzy up front, with plum and red currant flavors on a lively frame, pointing straight through the long, generous finish, which ends with welcome toast and warmth. Needs time to settle into itself. Best from 2010 through 2014.
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.”
Part of the Wairarapa region in the southern end of the country’s North Island, Martinborough is a bucolic appellation full of artisan, lifestyle wine producers. Above all else, their goals are to tend vineyards for low yields and create wines of supreme quality. Pinot noir is the main grape variety here, occupying over half of the land under vine.
Comparing topography, climate and soils, the region is nearly identical to Marlborough except that it produces top quality reds on the regular.