Our Estate Range Pinot Noir represents a new style that we have been exploring over recent vintages and have had significant success with.
Traditionally, New Zealand Pinot Noir has tended to emulate Burgundy. While that has its merits, New Zealand wines are internationally recognised for their fruit purity and complexity, so we chose to lean into that natural strength rather than suppress it.
A fruit forward Pinot Noir
The key elements of the style are:
- Fruit picked on the riper end of the spectrum
- Good colour extraction
- Soft, approachable tannins
- A short skin contact of approximately 10–12 days
- No cold soak and minimal post-ferment maceration
After pressing, the wine goes straight to stainless steel, where it completes malolactic fermentation. This allows the wine to be bottled as early as four months after harvest, preserving freshness and vibrancy.
Stylistically, the wine is fresh, fruit-driven and expressive, with bright berry characters and a crisp finish. It is a very versatile Pinot Noir. Enjoyable as a traditional red at room temperature, but equally suited to being lightly chilled on warmer days, where the low tannin profile means no loss of complexity.
We launched this style across New Zealand, Australia, and the USA, and the response has been extremely positive. Positioning it at a similar price point to our award-winning Sauvignon Blanc has also proven to be a real advantage.
The wine has received strong accolades, and its performance in blind tastings has been a pleasant surprise, exceeding expectations given it sits outside the more traditional judging benchmarks.
We are already seeing other New Zealand wineries adopting similar approaches, and we expect this to become a significant movement for New Zealand Pinot Noir over the coming years.
