Winemaker Notes
An inviting and intriguing nose: florals compete with rich fruit, a hint of Arabic spices, then a whiff of smoke. The palate is typically diverse and exotic: cherry, savoury, hallmark dried herbs, and a burst of dark red flowers with a finish that just won’t end. The tannins are finely detailed, layered and gradually tighten to show authority over the rich core. There is both serious density and complexity that will amply reward patience.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Real purity of pinot noir fruit here with strawberries, orange peel, flowers and crushed pepper on the nose. It’s full-bodied, yet very tight and curated on the palate, providing fantastic length and focus. Tight at the end, but all there. Try after 2023, when it will have opened up.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Block 3 Pinot Noir is darkly floral and spicy on the nose, echoes of which swirl around on the palate. I love the way this presents, with abundant tannin and dark fruit yet with a levity that aerates the finish and leaves nothing but balance in its wake. It's a superb vintage, one that will age with grace. 14% alcohol. Rating:95+
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Wine Enthusiast
From one of Felton’s oldest vineyard blocks, this vintage of Block 3 offers much of the high-toned aromatics and structure this longtime biodynamic estate is renowned for. It’s a heady combo of cherry and currant fruit, baking spice, cedar and dried violet, with savory, meaty bass notes. Powdery tannins provide lovely texture. There’s elegance and harmony. Of Felton’s Pinots, it feels the most complete and ready to drink now, while being cellarworthy for at least another decade.
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Wine Spectator
Dark chocolate, black cherry and plum flavors show a mix of licorice, cumin and turmeric, adding a savory thread. Matcha green tea and white pepper notes are followed by a touch of currant that lingers on the finish. Drink now through 2035.
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.”
Home to the globe’s most southerly vineyards, which are cultivated below the 45th parallel, Central Otago is a true one-of-a-kind wine growing region, but not only because of its extreme location.
Central Otago is more dependent on one single variety than any other region in New Zealand—and it isn’t Sauvignon blanc. They don’t even make Sauvignon blanc there.
Pinot Noir claims nearly 75% of the region’s vineyards with Pinot Gris coming in a far second place and Riesling behind it. This is also New Zealand’s only wine region with a continental climate, giving it more diurnal and seasonal temperature shifts than any other.
The subregion of Bannockburn has enjoyed the most success historically but the area’s exceptional growth has moved to the promising regions of Cromwell/Bendigo and Alexandra districts. Central Otago is known for its fruity and full-bodied Pinot noir. With the freedom to experiment here, growers and winemakers are easily exhibiting the area’s great potential.