Winemaker Notes
Pinot Noir is well-suited to pair with poultry, beef, fish, ham, lamb and pork. It will play well with creamy sauces, spicy seasonings and may just be one of the world's most versatile food wines.
Rabbit Ranch is a collaborative venture, formed by a group of vineyards that were all individually once part of a Central Otago sheep station. Banding together to form Rabbit Ranch, they have enlisted the help of Chard Farm as a production partner, and secured the services of John Wallace, Chard Farm's Winemaker, and Pinot Noir producer of many years. The Vineyards of Rabbit Ranch are located in the Cromwell Basin, predominately in the Lowburn area. They are all on light, stony soils, on areas that were once part of the glacial riverbed that flowed through the Cromwell area.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Juicy and fragrant, with impressive depth to wild berry, pomegranate and spice flavors wrapped around a solid core of gravel and sea salt. Cedar and sandalwood linger with fine-grained tannins. Drink now through 2011
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.