South Brook Vineyard Pinot Noir

This Pinot Noir displays lifted aromas of red current, dark berry fruits, cassis and mocha, with a subtle green peppercorn spice. The palate is rich, displaying complex dark cherry and mixed berry fruits, layered over fresh herbs and cinnamon spice notes, finishing with refined acidity and rounded oak tannins.

WINEMAKING

The 2023 growing season started with above average bunch numbers in most districts in Marlborough. Unsettled and cooler weather over flowering resulted in loose and lighter bunches, with the net effect of producing average yields across most varieties and regions. The weather around the time of veraison was unstable, and at times threatening. We just missed out on the destruction of the cyclone that hit the east coast of the North Island. The weather then settled into a pattern reminiscent of the harvests in the early 2000s. The nights were particularly cool, and this helped to arrest any small levels of botrytis that had started in the early unsettled weather. It was a vintage where patience was rewarded and those who waited harvested fully ripe grapes with concentrated flavours and classic acidity. The fruit for this wine was handselected, hand-picked then taken straight to the winery. Our Pinot Noir was cold soaked for seven days, prior to five individual wild fermentations. A total of 40% of the ferments included whole bunch components, for additional complexity. After fermentation, the must was pressed and the wine aged for ten months in French oak barriques, with a total of 40% new oak.

2024 Tasting Note

2023 Tasting Note

2022 Tasting Note

2021 Tasting Note

ACCOLADES & REVIEWS

93 points | The Real Review, 2025
"A complex wine with layers of concentrated fruit ranging from raspberry to dried cherry, adorned with sweet floral notes and a dusting of cocoa oak. The palate is focused around the melting coulis of fruit, impressive purity and very fine tannins. Nicely woven, silky texture holds the powerful palate in place, giving it early approachability but the ability to unfurl with further layers of perfumed complexity over the mid-term"

93 points & Excellent | Cameron Douglas MS, 2025
"Taut, youthful, lots of ripe red berry fruit aromas and flavours framed by textures from fruit and wood tannins and a line of stony mineral ideas. Crisp, textured and dry with core flavours of plum and black currant with a seam of dark cherry and whispers of baking spice. Some tension and poise with best drinking from 2027 through 2031+."

95 points & Gold | New Zealand International Wine Show 2024

95 points & 5 stars | Sam Kim, Wine Orbit 2024
"Stylish and refined, the wine shows ripe cherry, thyme, clove, and toasted nut aromas. The palate displays fine flow and fleshy texture, splendidly framed by beautifully infused tannins, finishing wonderfully long and velvety. At its best: now to 2033"