Winemaker Notes
Ruby jewelled colour with aromas of raspberry, spice,dark toast and forest floor. The mouthfeel is bright andperky on entry with soft, savoury flavours and suppleacidity. The structure is built on fine grain and chalky tannins witha lingering juicy finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Silky and plush, this medium- to full-bodied Pinot Noir features a delicate interplay of cinnamon and clove with cherry and pomegranate. It glides easily to a long finish, picking up a hint of bacon or wood smoke along the way. Drink now–2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby-purple colored, the 2014 Single Vineyard Martinbrough Pinot Noir gives fragrant notes of lavender, dried Provence herbs and fallen leaves with a core of cranberries and red currants. Medium-bodied, it is elegantly fruited with great freshness and lift for the leafy / herbal character, nicely complimenting the fruit, finishing long with a nice chewy grip. Rating: 90+
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.