Winemaker Notes
Deep red colour. Ripe concentrated red and dark berry fruits with ripe plum aromas, a touch of leather and toasty oak. Soft full and long flavour with intense sweet-ripe fruit and tannins in a focused structure. Soft lingering finish with long flavour length. A beautiful wine.
"Far and away the best Palliser Pinot Noir we've ever reviewed, the 2005 boasts complex, savory aromas and flavors that match ripe black cherry and plum fruit with peppery-herbal notes and hints of smoke, meat and brown sugar. The creamy, supple tannins are balanced by crisp acids and concentrated fruit on the long finish. Drink now–2015."
-Wine Enthusiast
Professional Ratings
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.”
Part of the Wairarapa region in the southern end of the country’s North Island, Martinborough is a bucolic appellation full of artisan, lifestyle wine producers. Above all else, their goals are to tend vineyards for low yields and create wines of supreme quality. Pinot noir is the main grape variety here, occupying over half of the land under vine.
Comparing topography, climate and soils, the region is nearly identical to Marlborough except that it produces top quality reds on the regular.