Winemaker Notes
The wines are named in honour of New Zealand’s endemic falcon (Karearea in Maori), a bird that combines both power and finesse, the essence of Peregrine’s range of wines. Peregrine is proud to actively support conservation efforts to help sustain and increase the falcon population in the region.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
The McLachlan family established vines on their organic farm in 1998, adding a new place for their sheep to graze, between the vine rows; they also raise cattle, chickens, pigs and bees. Nadine Cross makes this wine from the family’s three vineyards: Bendigo, Pisa and Gibbston. The wine’s rich black-cherry color implies the dark tone of the fruit, which is crunchy and fresh, with the cool feel of snow melt and springtime earth. There’s also a resinous spice, like brushing up against a fir tree in the forest. This is a sleek and refreshing pinot, suited to a few years of development in the bottle.
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Decanter
Complex savory, spicy, undergrowth aromas and flavors. Fruit concentration on the palate with dark bramble fruit and a strong finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine bursts from the glass with heady aromas of tangy red berries, chocolate nibs, dried spices and flowers, backed by a distinctive earthy, savory spine. The seamless balance of fruit, spice and earth continues on the palate, where a savory line of tannins and crunchy acidity are woven together amid a silky mouthfeel and medium body. This is a classy, unmistakably New World Pinot that’s drinking well now but will continue to evolve until 2029.
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.