Winemaker Notes
Dark garnet with a purple edge, Alma Pinot Noir 2022 is a fine wine of both dimension and texture. Intense floral and spice aromas of carnations, peonies and lavender laced with cardamon, nutmeg, cloves, and sandalwood. Bright redcurrant and cherries give lovely red fruit appeal and great freshness to this complex, layered wine. Fine-grained silky tannins run throughout the palate, giving structure and finesse.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Alma Pinot Noir is supple and ripe, with an infusion of silty tannins and black tea. This is a gorgeous wine, totally svelte and structural at once, populated by a saturation of red fruits. There are pomegranate pearls, pink peppercorns, poached strawberry and even a hint of sumac. This is delicious.
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James Suckling
Dried and fresh strawberries with cherries and hints of orange peel. Medium body, fine tannins and a firm and silky-textured finish. Hints of sliced oranges. A rather linear pinot. Drink or hold.
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 eclectic region on the east coast of the North Island, Hawkes Bay extends from wide, fertile, coastal plains, inland, to the coast range, whose peaks reach as high as 5,300 feet. While the flatter areas were historically more popular because they are easier to cultivate, their alluvial soils can be too fertile for vines. In the late 20th century, the drive for quality led growers to the hills where soils are free-draining, limestone-rich and more suited to producing high quality wines.
Over the passing of time, the old Ngaruroro River laid down deep, gravelly beds, which were subsequently exposed after a huge flood in the 1860’s. In the 1980s growers identified this stretch, which continues for approximately 800 ha, and named it the Gimblett Gravels. The zone has proven to be ideal for the production of excellent red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.
Today the area takes well-earned recognition for its Bordeaux blends and other reds. Expressive of intense stewed red and black berry with gentle herbaceous characters, Gimblett Gravels wines are suggestive of their cool climate origin, and on par with other top-notch Bordeaux blends around the globe.
Chardonnay is the top white grape in Hawkes Bay, making elegant wines, strong in stone fruit character. Sauvignon blanc comes in close behind, notable for its tropical, fruit forward qualities.