Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
#58 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 of 2016
Winemaker Larry McKenna now has 30 years of experience with Martinborough Pinot Noir, and its on full display in this blend assembled from various plots around the village. Aromas of flowers, tea and cola lead into flavors of blackberries, vanilla and spice, framed by ample tannins. Drink 2020–2030.
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Wine Spectator
Pure and expressive, with juicy raspberry puree and fleshy cherry flavors that are crisp and vibrant, showing accents of clove, nutmeg and black pepper. Earl Grey tea details linger on the finish. The tannins provide a firm backbone. Drink now through 2026.
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.