Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has a very rich, ripe and attractive feel with innate depth that arrives by means of the region, experience and methods in play here. The dark and red cherries and plums are beautifully fresh and vibrant and framed in earthy, sappy notes that add complexity. The palate is intense yet plush. The rich dark cherries are cleverly captured and wrapped in reassuringly long, smooth tannins. Lots to like here! Drink or hold. Screw cap.
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Wine Spectator
The raspberry coulis and cherry compote flavors are fresh, with a thread of acidity that highlights rosemary and loam details. Velvety tannins firm up on the finish. Drink now through 2029
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Mainly picked between the two serious rains that fell on Martinborough during the vintage, the 2017 Pinot Noir is a medium-bodied, firm wine. Herbal notes accent plum and cherry fruit in a wine that's still structured and concentrated despite the challenges of the year.
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.