Looking forward to seeing how 2013 turns out, the 09 was definitely good though, a customer left some for us lowly chefs to have after service, was very appreciated.
This thread is fantastic. Enjoyed a Pegasus Bay 2002 a few months ago, showed very well and still more potential. Deeper, dark big fruit style but still showing distinct aged pinot forest floor/garrigue notes. One bottle left, trying to leave it alone!
Felton Road Calvert 07 lined up for dinner next week, taking a decanted 2012 to a tasting with friends tonight. Bit young but want to try it, and my small stash of older kiwi pinots always needs more time…
Hi Tim and Brian. All indications are that 2013 NZ PNs, for the top labels particularly, will be excellent. In general it will be an interesting contrast with 2012, which is a cooler, more classical year.
Tim, here are my notes on Escarpments '12s: 2012 Escarpment Pinot Noirs - CellarTracker
To give you an idea about '13s here are Thierry’s notes about Ata Rangi’s '13s in barrel: Ata Rangi 2013 Barrel Samples: let's get geeky on NZ Pinot - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
I must take up Huw’s offer to go over the hill to Escarpment to taste their '13s …
Cheers, Howard
Very appreciative of the organic and dynamic discussion on this thread, an area I definitely need to devote more attention to. I’ve had a couple Carricks and one Rippon and liked those quite a bit. Felton Road was more up and down for me, but it has been quite a while since I last tried one. Exciting to read about some of the producers I have not heard of. Maybe I need to get back down to God’s country again—it’s been 16 years now. And Don’s comments go double for the lamb which I tried on several occasions while there—I can still taste that stuff.
Had the chance to have a quick visit with Sue Courtney when she was up here and, IIRC (which I may not remember correctly, in fact), she also mentioned Greywacke for PN in laudatory tones.
Kwa Heri,
Mike
Mike, it would be great to meet you if you ever did come down to NZ. I’m sure we could set up some tastings of NZ pinot noir for you.
Sue would have been talking about Greywacke pinot noir. These days there is a lot of talk about boutique offerings of pinot noir from Marlborough, rather than it all being used for bulk production (particularly sparkling wine).
Kevin Judd of Greywacke is the former Cloudy Bay winemaker. There is a huge buzz around his wines and his pinot in particular. Drew brought one along the other evening to a tasting. It did not disappoint up against some pretty good Burgs. Tasting it encouraged me to take them more seriously and get some.
Best, Howard
pipeclay fall over for me with age
Michel, how much age before you see Mt Difficulty Pipeclays falling over? I have 2004s and 2005s in my cellar I have not tried for a while. Do you think they would have fallen over?
It’s tricky to know the current quality, as people in this thread acknowledge, because NZ pinot has (apparently) improved so much, so quickly. Will a 2014 Pipeclay cellar much better than my 2004 would have? I would expect and hope so, based on what I see in the glass, but won’t really know until 2024.
Having said that, I’ve recently had a 2001 Mt Difficulty (regular label) under screwcap that was drinking very well.
Also, among the three Mt Difficulty reserves I now typically prefer the more elegant and nuanced Long Gullys and Target Gullys to the earthier, gutsier Pipeclays that (as you can see) I used to buy.
Cheers, Howard
Does anyone know where Greywacke is sourcing their Pinot grapes from? I’m a big believer in the potential of Marlborough Pinot, but pretty much only from the hills.
I guess i can answer my own question by juyst visiting the Greyqacke website:
VITICULTURE
All fruit was grown in Marlborough’s Southern Va
lleys and principally sourced
from the Yarrum Vineyard situated on the Brancott /
Ben Morven ridge. Typical of this sub-
region, the wind-blown loess soils are comprised of
clay-loams with differing degrees of gravel
content. The various source blocks are cultivated t
o a mixture of pinot noir clones,
predominantly the Dijon clones 115, 777 and 667, wi
th smaller parcels of UCD5 and AM 10/5.
The vineyards are all hillside plantings trained to
two-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) with
a vine density of 3788 plants per hectare.
WINEMAKING
The grapes were hand harvested and chilled overnigh
t prior to hand sorting.
Most of the fruit was then de-stemmed into open-top
fermenters, the majority of fermentations
with partial whole bunch inclusion. The fruit was a
llowed to soak on skins prior to the onset of
indigenous yeast fermentation, then plunged daily b
y hand. After fermentation the wine was
pressed, racked and filled to French oak barriques
(40% new).
All individual clones were aged in barrel separatel
y for 16 months, prior to blending in August.
Once in tank the wine was egg white fined for clari
ty. The wine was bottled in October with
alcohol 14.0%, pH 3.65 and acidity 5.6 g/l.
I have a lot of time for Greywacke wines, they are great value for money.
I have strong urge to open a few bottles today, can anyone give a guide on the ideal drinking widow for 2009 Dry River/Bell Hill
Brian, I don’t really know ideal drinking windows for these wines but I’d say Bell Hill, as I think Dry River go more into the tunnel at this sort of age. Here’s a TN on a 2009 Bell Hill:
-
2009 Bell Hill Pinot Noir - New Zealand, South Island, Canterbury (4/17/2014)
Top quality NZ and US Pinot Noirs and Burgundies, with an old Loire to finish (Tinakori Bistro, Wellington): Deep ruby colour. A gorgeous, lifted, high toned bouquet of mainly red berries, with spices and dark flowers. On palate this is an individual, intriguing pinot noir. It has lovely, smooth texture and big structure, explosive power (Thierry sees this as reminiscent of carbonic maceration winemaking) and good length. On the reveal of this cult Canterbury, NZ label, there was a debate about whether this was at its best now or needed another five years or so, with me in the latter camp. Vines planted in 1997, situated at a 1920s limestone quarry, with the winemaking known to be traditional.
Posted from CellarTracker
You’re lucky to have a Bell Hill, as they are rare. If, by chance, you have a source where I can get some, please PM me.
Cheers, Howard
Brian - I concur with Howard: I suspect Bell Hill (while still v young) will be much better drinking now than the Dry River.
Good to hear, I went Bell Hill in the end. A good night was had. Tasting notes may or may not appear tomorrow.
It was actually the 2008 Bell Hill that we had. I hadn’t tasted this vintage before but I have had the 2010 and 2009 although much closer to their respective releases.
With the added time in bottle it is a more balanced wine; the added time in bottle making it more approachable. It always seemed a shame to be drinking them so fresh when the depth was obviously present to age gracefully. The colour is a little more garnet than I remember the more recent wines being (they were much younger when I tried them though) The perfume on the nose is still very fresh with typical pinot characteristics on the palate, red fruits a touch of smokey oak, great complexity and a nice long finish. I get the feeling that the wine is just starting to come out of its shell.
I probably wouldn’t have opened it if it weren’t for the fact that I had some friends over to celebrate a birthday and a few of them had never tried the Bell Hill wines and I didn’t feel right not sharing. Ideally I’d like to see it in a few years. I also opened their 09 Chardonnay as well, which was stunning. There is definitely something special about Waikari Chardonnay that I don’t get from Waipara at large.
Thanks for the note Brian - and “wow” for having one of the extremely scarce 2010s already 
! In many ways I’m a bigger fan of their Chardonnays, but definitely like the PN style as well - more savory than most NZ PNs.
Not Pinot but Chardonnay
Over the weekend I had a 2005 Neudorf ‘Moutere’ Chardonnay. Really liked it. Great intensity and balance. Beautifully made
I suspect they should be drunk- I had an 02 that was gone last year.
Pyramid Valley are so variably faulty I avoid them and many people in Aus returned wines to the importer unopened.
I have a soft spot for schubert wines when young or a warmer year Kusuda.
My favourite area for pinot is actually Canterbury- but I dont see a lot of them in Australia.
Michael,
I wondered at one time if Canterbury was the best area to grow Pinot noir in NZ. There are such good ones coming from so many places that would be very difficult for me to say now. That, and there are just so few from Canterbury…as you have found.
Peter Rosback
Sineann
good point Peter
I think it is specific sites.
I quite like Bell Hil.
I dont relish the big juicy Martinborough wines but Kusuda has a deft touch.
Even Marlborough has some lovely small batch wines eg Churton abyss, Schubert Marion’s
michel
Agreed, Schubert and Kasuda are my two favourite Martinborough producers, Schuberts single vineyard wines get me pretty excited. Canterbury definitely punches above its weight in general but I would think that much of that is due to the smaller size and more quality driven production, while there are a few bigger plantings from the likes of Montana(Brancott) I think most would fall into the more boutique range of establishment. As with Marlborough I think the best Waipara Pinot is coming off of the hills Mountford’s Gradient/Rise, Bell Hill. I also recently tried a new label called Silver Wing (their reserve Pinot Noir), the presentation is quite simple but the juice is very good and comes from a great spot by Black Estate.