Winemaker Notes
#82 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2024
Bright garnet red with a vibrant purple hue in the glass. Aromas of dark cherry compote are interwoven with leather and holiday spices. The palate is broad and mouth-filling, with sweet plum and cherry flavors dominating. The finish is creamy with hints of toasty oak while the palate is completed with fine and supple tannins and a fresh acidity.
Sarah Jessica and Invivo Cofounders Tim and Rob created their first ever Pinot Noir together and are truly excited to bring it their US customers. The long-term business partners blended some Pinot Noir from Marlborough in New Zealand together with a small amount of Pinot from Central Otago, which then spent eleven months in oak barrels. Sarah Jessica loved the fruit forward characters of the Marlborough Pinot coupled with the structure from the Pinot from Central Otago. By blending the two regions together, this delicious red wine has best of both worlds and stays with you long after first sip.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A fresh and tangy pinot noir with sliced strawberries and orange peel and some stone undertones. Medium-bodied with fine tannins and a crisp and delicious finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Mushrooms, hoisin sauce, dried flowers and ground spice mingle with plump cherries and raspberries on this midweight bottling. There’s tangy red fruit, silky texture and a savory spine of tannins. Drink up.
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Wine Spectator
Plump, juicy raspberry, blueberry and maraschino cherry flavors mingle with notes of red licorice, blood orange, clove and green cardamom, backed by a hint of toasted green tea that lingers on the silky finish.
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.