Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The Palliser Pinot style is typically a bit beefy, and this 2013 follows suit. That said, it’s likely to age well—at least through 2020. Cherry, herb and mocha aromas and flavors finish with a slightly dusty texture and firm acids.
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Wine Spectator
Supple and juicy, with cherry and pomegranate flavors that are tangy and appealing, accented by grace notes of dried rose, forest floor and rosemary. Very harmonious on the finish, exhibiting an air of elegance and ease. Drink now through 2025.
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.