Winemaker Notes
Aromas of vibrant red fruits, cocoa powder and dried spice. Palate is supple, long, and fruit focused with a finely grained tannin structure. Red berry flavours with a hint of toasty oak. A vintage with a supple but firm structure and the concentration necessary for cellaring well. This Pinot Noir should improve with time in bottle and be near its peak between 3-7 years after harvest.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Some leafy and earthy aromas here, as well as red berries and spicy bracken. The palate has a very supple, bright and fleshy feel with a lithe, juicy array of tannins that deliver a smooth and even, mid-weight impression. Drink now. Screw cap.
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Wine Enthusiast
This Pinot, from Marlborough’s Southern Valleys subregion, is ripe and fruity but not jammy or baked. Instead the perfume is floral with brambly raspberries, red currants, wild strawberries and undertones of cocktail bitters and wet stones. There’s a lovely lightness to the mouthfeel. Although the fruit is gripped by herb-flecked tannins, they’re woven into the wine rather than sitting over the top of it. A savory, herbal note lingers long on the finish. A delicate, modern Pinot for drinking young.
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.