Pinot Noir

Impressive and full bodied, savoury and earthy with all the classic flavours of great Wairarapa Pinot Noir. Winemaker Jannine Rickards has crafted a gorgeous textural Pinot Noir here with gentle French oak maturation, 20% new, giving the wine a light fine and no filtration. This wine is from an excellent vintage, 2020, and has great longevity of up to seven to eight years as well as being a great drink now. 

An elegant wine showing dark red berry fruits, dried herbs and subtle savoury notes. There are complex layers of whole bunch characteristics, spices, earthy cedar and forest floor. Elegantly concentrated with fine tannins and a silky texture. 

Beautifully suited to a rack of lamb or game dishes such as venison or duck.

Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir is regarded as an icon Pinot Noir from the world's southernmost wine region, the dramatically beautiful mountainous, Central Otago. This wine is made by the Dicey family, one of the first to plant grapes in Bannockburn, south of the Kawarau River. Their pioneering work in this region triggered rapid expansion in the area's modern wine history.

This wine is dry with powerful fruit driven flavours and a smooth, approchoable style, even when this wine is youthful. It drinks well now and can age for a further four to five years. 

Small but beautifully formed Pinot Noir from Central Otago with delicate red fruit flavours supported by structured notes of spice and firm cedary aromas on the long finish.

Pinot lovers will adore this spicy, earthy and juicy medium bodied Pinot Noir from Marlborough's Southern Valleys, where elevated hillside vineyard sites benefit the early ripening Pinot grape. This is a great red with structure and impressive flavours for drinking now and also for cellaring, if willpower allows.

Two Paddocks Pinot Noir is actor and winemaker Sam Neill's introduction red to his range of wines from Central Otago. It's made from hand harvested grapes which are fermented and matured in French oak barriques. It is 100% certified organic, which reflects the Central Otago wine region's pre-eminence as New Zealand's leading organic wine region - 16% of the region's vines are certified organic with another 7% in the conversion process, which means that by 2023, 23 % of the vines will be certified.

Maori Point Pinot Noir is a full bodied expression of the hero red grape of Central Otago and named after a bend on the Mata-Au (also known as the Clutha River) where M?ori prospectors panned for gold in the 1860s.

The wine brand is owned by two families who grow the grapes and employ experienced winemakers in the region to produce their wines. The philosophy of the owners is to produce high quality wines made from hand picked grapes from vineyard sites with low yields, using wild yeast fermentations, minimal sulphur additions and using sustainable practices as much as possible. This is their quest and the wines are elegant renditions of Otago's edgy climate with its hot summer days and cool seasons on both sides of ripening. 

Red, purple hue. Dense nose of dark cherry and plum fruits. Subtle oak and typical GV salinity. On the palate this wine is rich, but also tightly woven. Dark fruit is fleshed out by toasty oak and firm fruit tannins. Great balance of acidity.

Classy fruit-forward Pinot grown on Upper Moutere clay. The elegant nose offers wild red fruits and brambles that lead to a seductive, feminine palate layered with fine tannins and lifting acidity. 

Ruby red in colour, this wine has a bouquet of savoury red berry fruit, black cherry and vanilla that combine with aromas of black forest berries, cloves and dark violets, finishing with soft stony notes. Dry on the palate with a core of fruit, savoury tannins give it a great texture. The oak influence is obvious with baking spices, brown sugar and smokiness.

We expect this wine to improve further with careful cellaring over the next 7-10 years.

Outstanding Pinot Noir from one of Martinborough's first wineries, Nga Waka; a small company with new owners and the same winemaker - founder and former owner, Roger Parkinson. This spicy, full bodied, darkly fruited wine is as elegant as it is power packed with flavour and beauty. It drinks beautifully now and is a definite keeper for at least five years. 

This wine is made using 16% whole bunch fermentation to add structure and accentuate spicy flavour notes with 20% new oak for support rather than dominating the delicate fruit flavours in this excellent expression of Wairarapa Pinot Noir. 

This Pinot Noir is one of our favourites and comes from Wellington's closest wine region, the Wairarapa; Gladstone, to be precise, where winemaker Karl Johner has what you might call a foot in both camps. The German born winemaker produces wine at his winery in Gladstone in the New Zealand summer. In our winter, he hot foots it back to Germany to work harvest at his winery there.

The wines from both places are classic, elegant expressions of aromatic grape varieties; high points are Pinot Noir, Riesling and Pinot Gris; made in a range of styles.

This Pinot Noir is a dry, medium bodied, earthy and smooth. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. This wine ticks the vegan friendly box.

Gamey, savoury, deliciously refreshing Pinot Noir from Martinborough's next new big thing - Te Muna Valley, a dramatically majestic sub region for grapes that is situated 9 kilometres east of Martinborough village. 

Big Sky Wines is on the high alluvial terraces of Martinborough's Huangarua River at Te Muna, 9 kilometres east of the village. Low yielding deep gravels, hot days and cool nights result in wines that are deep and complex. This is their flagship wine from a low vigour, low cropping vineyard.  Hand picked, crushed into two tonne open fermenters with 10% whole bunch fermentation and minimal crushing and with wild fermentation followed by 12 months in French oak, 12.5% of which was new. And therein lies the beauty of this insanely delicious Pinot Noir with its ripe berry fruit flavours of dark cherries and plums, balanced by mouth filling savouriness, warm spice, and silky tannins. 

The Big Sky story

Jeremy Corban and Katherine Jacobs founded Big Sky Wines in the Te Muna Valley, Martinborough, in 2005. They have since expanded their small vineyard, which is predominantly planted in Pinot Noir and also has a little Sauvignon Blanc, which they give extra textural complexity to with a little time in old oak on lees. 

This silky, elegant Pinot from Chard Farm is made with from vineyards in Lowburn and Parkburn where the soils are a mixture of alluvial schist. All grapes in this wine were hand picked and fermented in small lots. 

A delicious Pinot with a seductively elegant power and youthful, fresh and refreshing style. 

A portion of the proceeds of each bottle of smooth and spicy Crimson Pinot Noir goes towards Project Crimson; a native tree replanting project nationwide in New Zealand, which the Ata Rangi winery is involved in today.

This wine is dry, medium bodied and fruit-led with red and dark fruit flavours leading into toasted spice notes and a lingering finish. It's one of Martinborough's great gateway Pinot Noirs. 

The name Ata Rangi is Maori for dawn sky and was chosen to portray the new beginning that the start of this winery represented for founder Clive Paton in the late 1970s.