Winemaker Notes
Bright red cherry color. Seductive aromas of plums, raspberry, dried rose petals and damp earth. Delicious and long feel on the palate with a fresh core of red fruits integrated with fine dry tannins to create a beautiful yet texturally dry finish. FOOD MATCH: Poultry
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has a measured feel to it and a restrained, almost taut, stance. There are plenty of raspberry, red plum and red cherry fruit aromas and flavors. Tannins are fine and gently muscular, smooth-honed and carry long. Drink now. Screw cap.
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Tasting Panel
Deep ruby color with an earthy and bright cherry nose; velvety, dense texture with aromatic berry fruit.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Craggy Range's 2015 Te Muna Road Vineyard Pinot Noir is a fine example of Martinborough Pinot Noir, boasting savory overtones of earth and spice to go along with bold black cherry fruit. It's medium to full-bodied, with smooth, supple tannins and crisp acids that illuminate the finish.
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.