Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby-purple colored, the 2015 First Paddock Pinot Noir has a compelling nose of red cherries, cranberries and red currants, plus underlying garrigue, earth, game and dried herb notes. Light to medium-bodied and displaying commendable finesse, the palate has a great intensity of complex, earthy/savory flavors with a solid structure and excellent length. Bravo!
Rating: 94+ -
Wine Enthusiast
Silky and delicate in texture, this nearly weightless Pinot Noir offers red cherry-berry aromas and flavors, laced with hints of blossoms and herbs. The tart finish lingers sweetly in an intriguing, paradoxical juxtaposition. Drink now–2025.
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Wine Spectator
Dense, offering fleshy tannins and a smoky overtone to the dried cherry and pomegranate flavors. Crisp and vibrant, with sandalwood and cigar notes lingering on the finish. Drink now through 2027.
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.