Winemaker Notes
Ripe plum and an earthy savouriness are complimented with mocha and rose petal. The immediately inviting and generous mouthfeel is in the usual extroverted Cornish Point manner. However, every component is in superb balance with not a step out of place: a sign of things to come as vine age starts to dominate in this vineyard. Chocolate nut tannins flow across the palate building presence and scale. Like a favourite soft and comfortable sofa: easy to melt in to!
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A richly fruited style with black-cherry and berry aromas and flavors, cast in a gently muscular bed of grainy tannins that delivers a smooth, plush and luxuriant mouthfeel. Dark-plum finish. Needs time. Drink in 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Cornish Point Pinot Noir reveals a touch more oak than the regular Pinot Noir bottling, its red fruit notes taking on a bit of a glossy mocha sheen. It's not enough to detract from the quality of the underlying fruit, which showcases ripe cherries and raspberries. Medium to full-bodied, with a supremely silky, plush texture and a long finish, this wine should drink well for up to a decade from the vintage.
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Decanter
A juicy expression with a nice plump core, but it's all within a finely structured frame. Very fine, almost chalky tannins give a slippery texture, while ripe cherry fruit and savoury spice with a touch of wood linger on the medium-long finish.
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Wine Spectator
Plush and supple, with black licorice-scented black cherry and blueberry flavors and spice, vanilla and cherry cola accents smoothing out the edges. Appealing for the richness and depth. Drink now through 2028.
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.