Consistently NZ's best pinot noir ... ?

WINE TALK
21

Right, so back to the thread topic …

Rauno and Chiu, the ageability of NZ PN is a topic similar to the recent thread about the ageability of US PN that I followed with interest.

I drank plenty of NZ PN in the 1990s but did not cellar any that I still have. I know people whose palates I respect like Scott of Maison Vauron who also doubt the ability of NZ PNs to age. However, I have in the last year tasted a number of 2001 and 2003 leading PNs (all under screwcap), and all were fresh as daisies, with plenty of life ahead of them. I can only assess what I see and I do consider that current vintages of younger vineyards like Mt Difficulty and Felton Road do have the acids, to go with the fruit, to carry them 10+ years into the future.

Raino, Helen Masters will be happy with your comment about Ata Rangi. I have bought her PNs every vintage since the 1990s, and would definitely put them in my top tier of NZ PNs. I put on a 2001 to 2010 AR vertical and all but the 2001 and 2003 (which were under cork and damaged) were drinking well. The 2004, in a lighter style, is drinking very well ATM.

I recently tried the first Martinborough Vineyards Marie Zelie (2003?) blind in a line up and it was one of my WoTNs. I have tried several vintages and think it is very good, just not good QPR.

I agree with your comments about vine age of NZ PN.

For the record, my very top tier NZ PNs are: Ata Rangi, MVs MZ and main label, Escarpment single vineyards especially Kiwa (30+ year old wines, the most Burgundian NZ PN) and Kupe, TerraVin Hillside (Marlborough) and the CO labels I have mentioned.

There are others which are very good, I would put just outside this top tier, particularly Rippon, Neudorf Moutere (Nelson) and Pegasus Bay (Canterbury).

I have been impressed by the Bell Hills, Pyramid Valley, Terra Sancta and Kusuda wines I have recently tasted, but I want to see more examples. I don’t have much experience with Greystone and must try more, Wayne.

… and Dry River, to me, just does not have enough PN varietal character.

Howard

22

Had a magnum of the 2000 Block 3 which was just singing at a lunch towards the end of last year. Absolutely delicious and considerably more enjoyable to drink than the 96 Burgundies that it was served with.

23

I have been away from NZ wines for …a decade or two !! but being an opened minded person, [wink.gif] have recently been trying more NZ reds. Not so sure about Syrah and it’s ability to age and develop the textures and complexities that I am looking for, but it’s still early days for them, and are still not a fan of our Cabernet blends so I thought I would give Pinot a shot.
Apart from Felton road where else do you think go?
Agree about your comments about Dry River.
If it helps my palate is the antithesis of Mike During’s … but I still remember the days when he thought a full throttle Aussie Shiraz was the bees knee’s. [wow.gif]

24

Tom, that’s good to hear.

If it helps my palate is the antithesis of Mike During’s … but I still remember the days when he thought a full throttle Aussie Shiraz was the bees knee’s. > [wow.gif]

Wayne, I think Mike is contacting his solicitors as we speak … I also think Mike is now thinking of buying some NZ PN in a small way, but I’ll let him speak for himself …

I’m buying largely what I listed in the third post above, and expecting them to cellar for the future.

But Andrew, Rauno and others familiar with NZ PN, what in your opinions are the best NZ PNs? How would you answer Wayne’s question?

Howard

25

Hi Howard, I would wholeheartedly agree with you on the Block 3. This is after drinking quite a bit of NZ Pinot.

Point of interest - we actually had a DRC vs the rest of the world Pinot tasting here in Singapore, with 4 flights each with a DRC from different vineyards and terrors alongside top Pinots from around the world. IIRC, different vintages of the Block 3 were represented in each flight, and they showed very well against the competition.

26

Do you (Kiwis and others) have an opinion about the Pinots from Larry McKenna and Escarpment?

I enjoyed the Bell Hill Pinots but the pricing seems ambitious, especially considering the competition here in the US.

Blair and Gareth are incredibly likeable. Felton Road must rate as one of the NZ’s consistent best. For some reason I’ve been hit and miss with Rippon, although they’ve more often been good.

RT

27

Hi Howard,

Thanks for posting the note and asking the question. This is a question I have wondered about multiple times without ever acheiving anything close to a satisfactory answer. For starters I think the question should be: “Which NZ winery produces NZ’s best pinot noirs-consistently?”

For me to ranked at the very top requires both high quality, great pinosity and importantly consistency demonstrated over a period of time. I agree with other posters that ageability of NZ remains to be demonstrated. In this context I regard ageability to imply that the wine improves and positively evolves with bottle age. Most of the older NZ pinots I have tasted where very nice and delicious but had not acquired any real additional complexity (for my taste anyway).


Additionally it is tough question to answer easily as there are many variables and criteria to consider in the assessment. My rank criteria for NZ pinots may well be different from yours or Andrews or Rauno’s etc etc. So we run the risk of talking past each other. For example, for the reasons discussed above and mentioned in other posts, I would NOT include ageability (yet anyway) as a key rank criteria for me. Maybe in another 10-20 years time, the issue of ageability can be addressed with more confidence (and lots more data).

I am also not sure if there is a clear number 1 but I agree there are a number of top level pinot makers who are passionate and dedictated.

In no particular order, for me the “top table” definitely includes; Felton Rd, Ata Rangi, Martinborough Vineyard and possibly includes Pyramid Valley, Bell Hill and Kusuda.

I find that both Felton Road and Ata Rangi produce wines that show wonderful pinosity, delicious, well made high quality wines which seem to to show best between 5 to 8 years after vintage. Both of these winery’s are great examplars of their district and show case the best of each region for me.

Brodie

28

Rauno, Howard,

I have bought and cellared Dry River wines for some time now and have reached the point where I am no longer interested in buying their red wines. The pinot is a very well made wine but seriously lacks varietal typicity and is much darker and more black fruited than I prefer. Again my experiences with aging these wines has not yielded any “alchemy” either.

Cheers Brodie

29

For mine (and from limited experience compared to the rest of the board) - Ata Rangi, MV, Pyramid Valley and Escarpment. Not yet tried Rippon. Not confident on the ageability of most Otago PNs - under screwcap is a different story of course.

30

Paul, interesting to hear.

Do you (Kiwis and others) have an opinion about the Pinots from Larry McKenna and Escarpment?

Richard, I do. As above, I put them in my top tier.

A bit of background first. Larry was of course previously winemaker at Martinborough Vineyards. Larry’s Escarpment vineyard is in the new area in Te Muna Road a few kilometres from the original area in Martinborough township (where Ata Rangi, Martinborough Vineyards etc are). He produces his main label from Te Muna fruit and his flagship reserve Kupe PN (from vines < 15 years).

Since 2006, Larry has accessed some parcels of fruit from older vines that were part of his old MV PNs, from vineyards around the township area. These single vineyard wines are Kiwa, Te Rehua and Pahi and take on different vineyard characteristics, that make them interesting to follow. The vine age for these wines can be 30 years+.

Larry follows Burgundian models and has dialled back on new oak in recent years.

And I agree with you about both Bell Hill and Rippon (although some whose palates I trust swear by the latter).

Cheers, Howard

31

Chiu - Howard’s advice on Hawke’s Bay is excellent. If you are short of time, you might prioritise Craggy Range - all well made wines in the modern style. If you like your wines ‘artisanal’ you may dislike these intellectually but struggle to find specific reasons for doing so. For example, the Bordeaux blends drink suspiciously well young and yet they age well, at least in the medium term.

Howard, I’m roughly in agreement with the Jukes and Stelzer 2013 classification (http://www.matthewjukes.com/2013/03/the-great-new-zealand-pinot-noir-classification-2013/) that puts Ata Rangi, Mt Difficulty and Rippon in the top tier, along with Bell Hill, which I have never been able to find, and Dry River, which I stopped buying long ago for the reasons mentioned above.

Richard, I rate Escarpment very highly and would put promote it to the top tier at the expense of Dry River. Larry McKenna’s Insight Series single vineyard wines have not only great pinosity, but Martinborough typicity. Each vineyard has a signature that speaks of his respect for terroir and absence of winemaker’s ego (ego-friendly?).

J & S have Pyramid Valley in the second tier. I would put it next in line for promotion. Kusuda is in their 3rd tier, whereas others would say second tier at least.

I have been buying more NZ Pinot recently, partly to test its ability to age, partly out of partisan guilt for all the Burgundy I have bought, and partly because Mike During said it was OK.

32

Howard, definitely agree with your Burgundian comment about Escarpment. They stood out at the 2011 IPNC line-up compared to Jules Taylor, Mt. Difficulty, and Prophet Rock.

I’ve heard plenty of talk, over the years, about how NZ Pinots are the closest to Burgundy in style. When compared across a spectrum of Cali, Oregon and Burgs, NZ Pinots usually strike me as intensely Raspberry/Strawberry fruited. Oregon Pinots often have more secondary nuances (sous bois, minerals, loam, etc.). Plenty of variance ofcourse, and things are certainly evolving…as is true with all new world Pinots.

RT

33

Interesting that, amid all the screwcaps, Larry McKenna experimented with diam for his single vineyard wines, but has recently gone back to cork.

34

I find the most fascinating NZ Pinots to be those of Pyramid Valley. That said they are too inconsistent and variable to yet be considered the best.

Felton Road Block 3 is definitely my pick of the Central Otago wines and definitely in the top tier. I do agree with Rauno however, in that Central Otago’s wines haven’t captivated me as much as those from Martinborough (which probably benefits from vine age), Waipara and surrounds (which might have the most interesting Terrior and climate), and the Marlborough/Nelson hills (especially Terravin and Neudorf).

I think they’ve all been mentioned above, but i’d have Escarpment, Ata Rangi, Pyramid Valley, Bell Hill, Pegasus Bay, Terravin, Neudorf, and Felton Road as the best.

Valli from Central Otago, Mountford from Waipara, and Fromm and Seresin from Marlborough haven’t been mentioned and I think they’re in the discussion. Also watch out for the Waitaki region as an interesting up and comer that has pretty compelling terrior and climate.

On ageability, that has definitely been an issue. Clearly vine age plays a roll here, as does, I suspect clonal mix.

I somewhat agree with the comments on Dry River, although it does have a pretty good track record of aging. I also think the style dialed down a little when the wine making moved from Neil to Poppy.

35

Hi Clayton,

I was expecting you to chime in at some point. I agree with your comments and would like to expand on the Pyramid Valley comment.

I am in the mailing list and have been buying their wines for a few years now. When they are “on” they are delicious but I have some poor bottles which have been cloudy and off. There maybe a systemic issue with the 2011’s which I bought but have not yet tried. I read some troubling reports of bacterial issues and am wondering if their sulphur regime is too low ( do they even use any at all?)

Interested in your thoughts

Cheers Brodie

36

Hi Andrew, this made me laugh. Are they in rank order or inverse rank order??? How impt was Mike’s “approval”?

An interesting set of reasons, but none of them compelling in truth. I also buy for abstract reasons rather than reasons of passion or love! Maybe this will change with time.

They are not burgundies and should not be compared to burgundies. Sadly l love red burgundy more than my own native pinots. Not much of a Kiwi patriot I am afraid!

Brodie

37

Brodie, I read Andrew’s list as being in ascending level of importance. [cheers.gif]

But more seriously, Pyramid Valley is one I don’t feel I have any handle on. I have really liked some of the two top cuvées I’ve had (more often Earth Smoke than Angel Flower), others less so. I don’t have huge experience with them but wonder if their natural winemaking style does lead to greater variability (and I understand that they use no or only minimal sulphur on these wines).

At the lower levels I like PV’s Marlborough Auntsfield region Cowley label because I like the regional style. Their Calvert label is often good but again I see it as more reflecting the Calvert terroir or style than any PV signature (I attribute this to the two top cuvées).

So I’d be interested in Clayton’s further comments or those of anyone else who knows these wines better than me. They are certainly highly rated by many …

Howard

38

Made me laugh. I think that when I suggested that the best NZ Pinots are at 1er and even GC quality Andrew was perhaps a little surprised. Certainly Felton Road has been a leader, and possibly has a nose in front of the rest of the field, but there are a few dozen NZ Pinot producers that I rate very highly and doing brilliant stuff. My trips to the Central Otago Celebration have allowed me to see first hand the rapid transformation of some labels and introduced me to other greats down there.

There is a push to vineyard/climat wines taking on the Burgundy model, and already there are clear terroir markers. Though just starting, and with a little vine age, it makes NZ Pinots so much more interesting than even a few years ago.

Cheers Mike

39

Brodie, I didn’t want to give the impression that I think NZ Pinot is interchangeable with Burgundy. Pinot is is the medium for expression of terroir, not the message. I just happen to prefer the Pinot Noir medium to others, so I’m more likely to attempt to assuage my (non-existent) guilt with NZ Pinot than Gimblett Gravels Syrah, for example. But, like you, I prefer hearing what Pinot has to say about Burgundy than about other parts of the world.

And yes, inverse rank order of importance (and irony).

40

Some thoughts on Pyramid Valley. I did say i find them the most fascinating, not necessarily the best.

I do think the grower series is great across the board and represent some of the best versions of these diverse varieties in NZ. They have managed to identify great vineyards and growers around the country and make individual and expressive wines from the grapes. They are also very reasonably priced… I think across the board these wines are a no brainer.

The home vineyard wines are where all the controversy comes in. I really don’t know if the winemaking approach is different for these, but they are definitely on the edge. I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to Mike and/or Claudia so don’t have a great depth of knowledge on their approach.

From what i can gather the vineyards are truly special - 20%+ clay, 5-10% active lime, 10,000+ vine per hectare, diverse clonal selection, 20-30 degree slopes, i think maybe own rooted, fully biodynamic. They are still fairly young vines, so should only improve.

I wonder if the winemaking has sometimes got in the way, which is somewhat ironic (not by definition, but in a Alanis Morisette kind of way) as the intention is to be non-interventionist. I believe no sulpher is used throughout the wine making and only minimal amount at bottling. I do think as a result the stability of the wines has been quite fragile. Especially in years where they have had quite high pH and had stem inclusion (raising the pH even further). High pH, low sulpher, no fining or filtering can be a recipe for a live bacterial experiment. From what i understand they’ve been dialing down on the stems (even to no stem inclusion) on the home vineyards to help a little here. Either way, I still find these wines so characterful and interesting to drink. I actually haven’t had any outright flawed wines yet, but I have seen that written quite frequently.

One big issue for the home vineyard wines is the NZ$120 price tag, which is pretty extreme for just how on edge they seem to be. A lot of money to roll the dice on a domestic pinot. In the US we get them at a much more reasonable tarif, and the auction prices on them are even less, making it much easier to buy and try.

Anyway, as mentioned i’m a fan and really would like to see more NZ producers breaking out of the textbook approach and taking a more “natural” approach. That said I think there should be a happy medium and the PV wines could benefit from a safer cleaner approach.

I hope to visit whenever i’m net in the Canterbury area (it’s been a very very long time).

Clayton