Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Opens with beautiful aromas of lavender, clary sage and violet. Refined and detailed, with velvety tannins adding some appealing traction to the core of raspberry and black cherry. Everything comes together with tremendous harmony on the long, generous finish. Drink now through 2030.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby-purple in color, the 2015 The Fusilier Pinot Noir has an earthy nose with notes of underbrush, loam, fungi and moss over a core of cranberries and red currants. Medium-bodied, it fills the palate with complex earthy/meaty flavors supported by a solid backbone, finishing long and chewy.
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Wine Enthusiast
In marginal climates, what a difference a vintage can make. The 2015s from proprietor Sam Neill (yes, the actor) are a big step up from the 2014s. This bottling, from the Bannockburn subregion, offers bold notes of black cherries, plum and cola. It's a rich, ripe and powerful wine, with a long, intense finish that bodes well for cellaring. Drink now–2025.
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.