Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very complete wine that has a complex, rich nose with plenty of ripe-cherry and red-berry fruits, some distinct herbal threads, chocolate, flowers and deeply earthy notes. The palate has composure, structure and density, silky at the edges, carrying plenty of cherry and plum flavor. Great length, too: so well-balanced as to appear effortless. The best Escarpment estate-blend pinot to date. Range: 94-95
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Wine Spectator
Powerful and concentrated, with dense tannins and generous maraschino cherry, wild raspberry and plum flavors at the core, accented by pine, fresh earth and cigar box.
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Wine Enthusiast
Escarpment's basic blended Pinot is anything but basic in 2013. There's a pleasing mixture of red and black fruit, notes of dried flowers and thyme and hints of mocha, cola and vanilla. It's medium bodied, with a firm feel on the palate and some dusty tannins on the long finish. It should drink well through 2023.
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.