Winemaker Notes
The Last Chance is a beautifully sited small terrace perched in bright clear air above the Earnscleugh Valley, carefully planted with well-tended Burgundian clone pinot noir. It nestles amongst a small cluster of the World's most southerly vineyards and takes its name from the watercourse that runs through its heart, hand dug by gold miners in the 1860s, The Last Chance.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2012 Two Paddocks The Last Chance is a monumental achievement, while it is already showing itself off, time may make it way better. Wild and pure from start to finish. Begs for the best marbled steak in the house! Medium brick color; wild strawberry aromas, excellent depth; medium bodied, has a bit of weight on the palate; black fruit flavors, fine concentration; long aftertaste. (Tasted: July 27, 2015, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby-purple colored, the 2012 Last Chance Pinot Noir has gorgeous kirsch, red currant jelly, game and violets notes on the nose with nuances of thyme and truffles. Very elegant and fresh in the mouth with a great intensity of red fruit characters and satiny tannins, it concludes with great persistence and a minerally lift.
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Wine Enthusiast
It was fascinating to compare this to Two Paddocks’ regular bottling. The Last Chance is slightly richer, but otherwise features many of the same elements: smoke, tart cherries and delicate herbal notes. Despite the extra concentration, it’s still supple and approachable now.
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.