Winemaker Notes
Perfume, elegant fruit flavors, and soft ripe tannins are all hallmarks of this exceptional Pinot Noir.
A typical Martinborough summer created the distinctive Escarpment style showing complexity, attractive texture and the perfect mix of black, red and green fruit flavors for which Pinot Noir is celebrated
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very complex and brightly fragrant nose, bursting with lightly earthy, very spicy red-cherry aromas. The palate has a succulent, elegant and fleshy feel with attractively rich yet fresh style. Ripe and rich tannins to close.
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.