Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Grown on a north-facing slope of windblown loess over clay, this pinot noir pops with licorice and bright cranberry scents. It’s fresh and tangy, the fruitiness on the surface deepened by earth scents and oak savor. A crisp-lined pinot for planked salmon.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby-purple colored, the 2011 Pioneer Block 16 Awatere Pinot Noir is scented of red currant, pomegranate and red cherries with nuances of Provencal herbs and forest floor. Medium bodied with a good core of vibrant red berry flavors, it has a nice line of refreshing acid and low level of chewy tannins framing the fruit through the long finish.
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Wine Spectator
The cherry fruit that defines this wine is almost too bright, too pure—it verges on being confected in character. Yet it’s reined in by a leash of vanilla oak and a reasonably firm structure of acids and tannins. The wine is merely too young at the moment, so give it a few years to mellow and gain complexity.
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.”
An icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.