Winemaker Notes
Aromas of orange blossom, strong floral notes and hints of cedar on first breath followed by bramble berries and strawberry preserves.The palate has a soft attack with notes of chalky cherries and a juicy mid palate weight carried by it’s supple acidity and a long finish full of allspice, cardamom and Shiitake mushrooms.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Pop this in a decanter or give it some good swirling to really uncoil it aromatically. When it does release its aromas, it's a characterful and tasty drop. Think plump brambly berries, warm stones, mushrooms and roses. It's medium weight, with fleshy fruit, crunchy acidity and silky tannins. There's a lovely spiciness that flows through to the finish. Drink now with rustic, fatty, Pinot-friendly fare.
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.