Winemaker Notes
A vibrant bouquet loaded with red and blue fruits, savory spices, and dried flowers. The palate delivers juicy black cherry and wild black berry flavors with an intriguing earthy undertone. The wine has a lovely weight and texture with polished, structured tannins and vibrant natural acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Reductive notes reminiscent of leather, mushroom, and damp pavement mingle with sweet, juicy red-berry fruit and savory and baking spices. Chiseled tannins tighten up the plush fruit. There's tangy, crunchy freshness, silky texture and a mineral streak. Oodles of crowd appeal and a sense of place to boot.
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.