Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Earnscleugh Vineyard Pinot Noir hails from a warmer season than 2012 tasted alongside it. The weather delivered a cool October, and November lead into summer, with an "unexpectedly large fruit set," says Phil Hanford. There was a late finish, with cool but perfectly fine days without significant frosts. The fruit was handpicked between the 22nd and 25th April. On the nose, the wine is all about goji berry and cocoa powder, some blood plum and macerated cherry. The wine is considerably more savory, despite having a year on the 2012 in terms of youth and freshness. The warmer year is evident here in the body and shape of the wine. It remains focused and elegant, yet the fruit has more heft and muscle. 13% alcohol.
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.