Matahiwi Holly Wairarapa Pinot Noir 2019 $39 What I really enjoy about this wine is its soft, floral aromas, lifted leather and spice layers and slippery, fleshy mouthfeel. It’s silky and lithe and shows lovely restraint and poise. The acidity is energetic and perky, yet the wine is developing some maturity and its tannins are … Read More
Pinot Noir
St Pauli Vineyard Moutere Pinot Noir 2019
St Pauli Vineyard Moutere Pinot Noir 2019 $35 Fresh and spicy, this Moutere-grown pinot noir is a first for the folk at St Pauli and it’s already winning fans in the wine sphere. Showing hedgerow fruits, redcurrant and black guava on the nose and palate, fine sandy tannins, cheek-puckering textures and excellent length of flavour, … Read More
Valli Waitaki North Otago Pinot Noir 2020
Valli Waitaki North Otago Pinot Noir 2020 $85 Winemaker Jen Parr has crafted a complex and earthy pinot from fruit grown in one of the most challenging climates in the country. So the grapes that do make it through the extremes of the season are incredibly concentrated and create wines that roar with tamarillo, plum, … Read More
Valli Bendigo Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020
Valli Bendigo Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020 $75 With aromas that remind me of the lush, leafy, mossy scent of walking through native bush after it’s rained, this pinot is awash with forest floor earthiness, black tea, tamarillo and concentrated cherry characters. Bright, fleshy, energetic and stylishly crafted, it’s delicious in its youth and … Read More
Valli Gibbston Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020
Valli Gibbston Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020 $75 Glossy and garnet-hued in the glass, it’s bursting with exotic florals, black guava, pepper and red apple notes, while on the palate, it’s energetic yet silky-textured, spice-saturated and and showing incredible grace and poise. It has a seamless structure, soothing, slippery, yet clinging to every cell … Read More
Wairiki Wines The Optimist Hawke’s Bay Pinot Noir 2020
Wairiki Wines The Optimist Hawke’s Bay Pinot Noir 2020 $25 I’d like to think I’m an optimist, but comparing my annual school photos, you can see me becoming an adult via the gradual draining of emotion in my expression. Thank heaven for the baked strawberry notes, earthy plushness, slightly foxy aromas, tweaks of tamarillo, and … Read More
The Black Grape Society Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019
The Black Grape Society Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019 $29 Paired with: Mushroom And Pumpkin Lasagne in NZ Herald Canvas Magazine August 13 2022 Six months in older oak barrels has given this pinot noir a gentle, smoky tone which wraps around a soft, savoury, mushroomy mid-palate and a backbone of bright berries, wild cherries … Read More
Valli Bannockburn Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020
Valli Bannockburn Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020 $75 You don’t earn Best in Show at the Decanter World Wine Awards and become one of the 50 greatest wines on the planet for being ‘good’. You also don’t earn Gold medals at the London International Wine Challenge, scores of 95/100 from Masters of Wine and … Read More
Porters Estate Martinborough Pinot Noir 2017
Porters Estate Martinborough Pinot Noir 2017 $45 Winemaker and ferociously competitive lawyer John Porter, has managed to cram a shed tonne of spice-soaked fruit into his wine, and that puts me firmly in my happy place pinot-wise. He doesn’t accept average and neither do you I suspect. Deceptively pale in colour (pinot noir doesn’t need … Read More
Kererū by Porters Martinborough Pinot Noir 2018
Kererū by Porters Martinborough Pinot Noir 2018 $35 Proprietor John Porter is a hands-on winegrower and winemaker when he’s not at his legal firm in Wellington. He and his wife planted 6.4ha of vines in 1992 and designed their ‘Kererū’ label to accelerate awareness of their native bush restoration initiative. Kererū is the Māori name … Read More