Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A slightly reticent nose shows laid back red-cherry fruits, crushed roses and rosehip. Some sappy elements too, and there's a focus on red cherry fruits here that belies the wine's Bannockburn location. The newest vineyard in the Two Paddocks collection. The palate has impressive acidity, which holds upbeat red-cherry and boysenberry flavors long and expansive. Glossy polished tannins wrap neatly and frame impressive length and focus. Drink now to 2025+.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is the inaugural release of the new Bannockburn vineyard of Two Paddocks and their only single vineyard release for 2014. And judging from this, what a superb and very unique addition to Two Paddocks' already exciting pair of vineyards based in Gibbston and Alexandra! This has quite and earthy / gamey / savory nose with a core of warm raspberries, kirsch, roses and cloves with a waft of yeast extract. The light-bodied palate has lovely finesse and elegance and yet offers good intensity and persistence, with lovely ripe, fine-grained tannins and plenty of layers. Apart from all this, it is totally delicious!
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Wine Spectator
The tannins are both firm and fine-grained, giving plenty of structure and adding a plush note to the brambly, wild strawberry and raspberry flavors. Ginger and sandalwood accents show on the lingering finish. Drink now through 2026.
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.”
Home to the globe’s most southerly vineyards, which are cultivated below the 45th parallel, Central Otago is a true one-of-a-kind wine growing region, but not only because of its extreme location.
Central Otago is more dependent on one single variety than any other region in New Zealand—and it isn’t Sauvignon blanc. They don’t even make Sauvignon blanc there.
Pinot Noir claims nearly 75% of the region’s vineyards with Pinot Gris coming in a far second place and Riesling behind it. This is also New Zealand’s only wine region with a continental climate, giving it more diurnal and seasonal temperature shifts than any other.
The subregion of Bannockburn has enjoyed the most success historically but the area’s exceptional growth has moved to the promising regions of Cromwell/Bendigo and Alexandra districts. Central Otago is known for its fruity and full-bodied Pinot noir. With the freedom to experiment here, growers and winemakers are easily exhibiting the area’s great potential.