Winemaker Notes
Savory spicy notes, with dark red fruit, wild thyme and char aromatics. This leads to an elegant well textured palate showing great length, nuance and drive.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A remote parcel from Earnscleugh, this is looking great in 2016 with abundant ripe cherries, presented in a sturdy yet elegant frame of fine, long tannins. This hits a new level of silkiness and swagger in 2016. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Arguably the world's southernmost vineyard, Two Paddocks' 2016 The Last Chance Pinot Noir is a bit firm and taut. Herbal-stemmy notes (it's 50% whole cluster this vintage) accent cherry aromas, while the flavors turn darker on the palate, heading toward charred oak, blackberry and plum. Give this one a bit of time to pull itself together and drink it from 2020.
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.