New Zealand Pinot Noir
New Zealand Pinot Noir
What’s the Scoop?
The Next Big “Pinot Hype”?
Recently I have read in a few wine publications of the great strides in quality that New Zealand Pinot Noir has made. I wanted to see for myself because many of these New Zealand Pinot’s are priced rather smart at $12-30. Price points that are much less than Oregon, California and especially the home of Pinot Noir, Burgundy. Burgundy is to Pinot Noir, as Lambeau Field is to the football: hallowed ground rich in history and tradition where little has changed in the last 50 years.
I am sure many of you are familiar with the uber-value Sauvignon Blanc made from New Zealand. With its zesty tropical flavors of guava, mango, and pineapple mixing with the hallmark gooseberry and lemon/lime flavors they are easy pleasing and hard to miss. One could say they were one of the best wine success stories in the last 10 years. The NZ SB’s exploded onto the scene in the late 90’s and never looked back. Its hard to find a bad bottle, though tougher to find one that is unique and dare I say it exceedingly great. I am hoping I do not run across the same problem here with Pinot Noir from New Zealand.
The main regions for Pinot Noir in New Zealand are Marlborough, Central Otago, and Canterbury on the South Island; then Hawkes Bay and Martinsborough on the north island. The wines I chose were mostly from Marlborough as those were the better priced wines and more widely available. Central Otago was the second most widely available followed by wines from Hawkes Bay.
I decided to run the gamut and try to get a wine from each popular region, price scale and style. I purchased a few in the $8-$15, $20, $25 and $30 bottle to try over the past week. A good amount of $35-70 bottles exist, but at that price point I would use that kind of money on red Burgundy or even a high end American Pinot Noir from Oregon or California.
The main regions for Pinot Noir in New Zealand are Marlborough, Central Otago, and Canterbury on the South Island; then Hawkes Bay and Martinsborough on the north island. The wines I chose were mostly from Marlborough as those were the better priced wines and more widely available. Central Otago was the second most widely available followed by wines from Hawkes Bay.
I decided to run the gamut and try to get a wine from each popular region, price scale and style. I purchased a few in the $8-$15, $20, $25 and $30 bottle to try over the past week. A good amount of $35-70 bottles exist, but at that price point I would use that kind of money on red Burgundy or even a high end American Pinot Noir from Oregon or California.
Since I was only familiar with a few producers, I spoke to the salesperson at a shop I purchase a lot of wine from that had a nice variety of NZ PN. He seemed pretty down on the wines in general, stating that the best are too expensive when compared to Burgundy. He also said that that the sub-$20 wines tend to taste like cranberry juice, OUCH! Not to worry, I did my due diligence ahead of time and knew what I wanted. I only took one of his recommendations and the wines I already chose he did not lambaste. I chose one that scored well with the Wine Spectator, one that scored well with Decanter (and I was familiar with), one that was really cheap, one middle of the road, and the last the most “Burgundian” of the lot. If any of these pan out and have any solid Pinot Noir character to them at all, they could be a good value depending on what was in the bottle and at what price. At worst I’d get something that tasted like red wine, as opposed to Pinot Noir which is very common with Pinot Noir costing less than $15. It was difficult to find a sample from Hawkes Bay in Martinborough as the wines from this region are much more expensive, and few good examples exist in my local shops for under $20. Many of NZ’s best Pinot Noir are from Hawkes Bay (Craggy Range), but are in the $50+ range.
Here was my short list:
2007 Mt. Difficulty Pinot Noir (South Island, Otago, Central Otago)
2006 Delta Vineyard Pinot Noir Hatter’s Hill (South Island, Marlborough)
2008 Yealands Estate Pinot Noir (South Island, Marlborough)
2006 Tohu Pinot Noir Marlborough Cuv
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