Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Beautifully pristine pinot, this sweet-spot pinot location has performed well in 2016, delivering a pinot that has an immaculately fresh core of red and black cherries with a sleek, smoothly rendered tannin frame that flows effortlessly and long. Truly superb pinot. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
My favorite of the 2016s from Two Paddocks comes from the warmest of its vineyards, was vinified as 70% whole clusters and saw the largest proportion of new oak (33%). That probably says more about my palate than Dean Shaw's winemaking or the various vineyards Two Paddocks owns, but it is worth noting. The 2016 The Fusilier Pinot Noir is floral and stemmy up front, but it's balanced by layers of mixed fruit that offer richness and texture without excess weight, finishing on silken notes of incredible delicacy and length.
Rating: 94+
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.