Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Owner-winemaker Rudi Bauer believes in making Pinot Noirs that can age, so it's no surprise that this is darker, firmer and more muscular than most. There's plenty of toast, cedar and coffee-bean-like oak, but it's amply supported by plum and black cherry fruit. The finish is silky enough to make this wine approachable now, but it will likely improve through at least 2025.
Editors’ Choice -
Wine & Spirits
Rudi Bauer grows this pinot noir at his 38-acre Bendigo Estate, a Demeter-certified biodynamic vineyard planted on clay, gravel and quartz. He cools the must to soak it for close to a week before the native yeasts begin fermentation, and he leaves it to macerate once they’ve finished for up to 12 days, creating a powerful red, what Miles Hunter of NYC’s Public described as an “alpha wine.” The bold extract holds clean forest-berry flavor within tannins that compress it—the wine may feel reduced, but the reduction seems to lift it. For the cellar.
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.