Winemaker Notes
Inspired by the classic wines of Burgundy, this Pinot Noir is a tribute to Martinborough’s unique terroir. It will cellar gracefully for up to 10 years.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
At half the price of Escarpment's single vineyard wine, Kupe, this is stellar value for one of New Zealand's top Pinots. Still young, it needs time in decanter or glass, then opens into a pretty yet powerful wine. Red fruit, tree sap, tar and underlying minerality are wound in raspy tannins. There's length, elegance, intensity and regional character.
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Wine Spectator
Complex and detailed, this fragrant red offers notes of gunpowder tea, dried lavender and rosemary, with a touch of sassafras to complement the rich, succulent black cherry, blueberry and blackberry flavors. The tannins offer a firm backbone, but never get in the way. Drink now through 2026
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James Suckling
Aromas of redcurrants, cherries, dried herbs and baking spices. Medium body with lively acidity. Fresh, layered and juicy with a bright core of fruit and a succulent finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep black cherry, plum and cola notes appear on the nose of Escarpment's 2019 Pinot Noir, a blend of several different sites around the village of Martinborough. Medium to full-bodied, plush and velvety, with a layered, richly textured finish, it's a solid offering that should drink well over the next decade.
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.