Winemaker Notes
A sweet-scented compote of poached Black Doris plums, raspberries and black cherries with a spoonful of homemade strawberry conserve stirred in for good measure. A highly fragrant style of Marlborough Pinot with cinnamon and clove spiciness – a dense structure, generous palate weight and a long, lively finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
An earthy edge together with graphite and baking spices here as well as dark cherries and redder fruits: It's all nicely layered on the nose. The palate has smooth, lightly textured but richly flavored fruit in the form of spiced cherries and plums. Plenty of depth offered by this great pinot. Drink now to 2025.
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Wine Spectator
Detailed, with notes of dried lavender, white pepper, fresh loamy earth and black tea set against a core of strawberry and raspberry flavors. Smooth and plush, this becomes even more expressive on the finish, where spice details fan out. Drink now through 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
Making top-flight Marlborough Pinot Noir wasn't easy in 2014, so this is an especially notable effort from Kevin Judd. Classic savory, forest-floor notes frame black-tea and plum flavors in this concentrated, richly textured wine. Drink now–2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby colored, the 2014 Pinot Noir exudes lovely floral notes of roses and lavender with a core of cranberries and red currants, plus hints of Provence herbs and fragrant earth. Light to medium-bodied, soft, elegant and filled with earthy/perfumed flavor layers, it delivers great expression and poise.
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.”
An icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.