Winemaker Notes
This bright and expressive Pinot leads with dark cherry, plum and undertones of thyme characters. Toasted oak notes impart a nice mouthfeel against the generous palate through a long finish. Undeniably approachable and will mature
gracefully over the next ten years.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Central Otago Pinot Noir comes out of the chute a bit green and stemmy (it's 50% whole cluster). It clearly needs a year or two to settle down and integrate that element with the bold cherry fruit, but I have little doubt that those components will come together in time, resulting in a wine that's substantially more attractive than it is currently. It's medium to full-bodied, with ample ripeness, silky tannins and solid length on the finish, all of which augur well for the future. It's made at Giant Steps in the Yarra Valley (Australia).
-
Wine Enthusiast
This small batch, characterful Pinot opens with a fruity perfume of plums, blueberries and rhubarb preserves sprinkled with violet and baking spice nuances. Traditional winemaking techniques like partial whole bunch and open top fermentation add character and generosity. The palate is full bodied, the plump fruit reined in by powerful, drying tannins.
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.