Winemaker Notes
On the nose there’s an overt smokiness that rewards decanting in the first few years after release. This opens to a concerto of florals backed by wet earth, forest floor, mushroom, and a delightful marshmallow note. The palate flows seamlessly with long silken tannins and intense plum and red berry flavors.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dark infused fruit, plums, dark cherries and aromatic herbs on the nose. The palate offers round, polished fruit on the darker end of the spectrum, with velvety tannins and a silky and pleasant finish.
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.