Te Kairanga Runholder Pinot Noir 2014
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Every year, sunshine and the seasons vary in the vineyard. Each year, nature works a different magic in the grapes. As a small winery Te Kairanga is free to express these differences in the subtle variations of the wines from vintage to vintage.
Pronounced “tee kigh-runger”, Te Kairanga is a traditional Maori place name (Maori are Polynesian people), meaning “where the soil is good and the food is plentiful”. However you pronounce it, it means - great wine!
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.”
Part of the Wairarapa region in the southern end of the country’s North Island, Martinborough is a bucolic appellation full of artisan, lifestyle wine producers. Above all else, their goals are to tend vineyards for low yields and create wines of supreme quality. Pinot noir is the main grape variety here, occupying over half of the land under vine.
Comparing topography, climate and soils, the region is nearly identical to Marlborough except that it produces top quality reds on the regular.