If the wines of Mora have yet to come across your path, they are worth beating a path to, if you'll excuse the metaphor. The word Mora means to pause, which is exactly what a group of about 130 people did in Pisa on a very warm, very sunny Saturday morning earlier this month.

The Pisa in question is in Central Otago and this event was the third Mora's Annual Harvest Celebration. It was a day to take time out from life and unwind, with wine in our glasses, food on our plates and people who had travelled from all over the country to attend. I flew down from Wellington to host the pre-lunch tasting, The Many Faces of Pinot Noir. 

There are many faces to Pinot Noir, which range from rosé (arguably the most popular category of wine today) to blanc de noir (white wines made from the Pinot Noir grape, sans or with minimal skin contact), fruity styles made using carbonic maceration (also known as intracellular fermentation) and, of course, full bodied red wines made from Pinot Noir. 

We had four wines and one hour to look at them... These four wines are diverse in style; aroma, body and flavour but all of them are dry - technically and in taste. 

Four faces of Mora Pinot Noir

19/20
2024 Mora Albi Bannockburn RRP $55

Albi is the Latin word for white and for this wine; a blanc de noir made entirely from Pinot Noir grapes, which is fermented dry to 1.5 grams RS with fleshy interesting textural mouthfeel - from a brief time of lees ageing. Hand picked grapes were whole bunch pressed and fermented mainly in stainless steel with a portion in older oak barrels with a Chardonnay yeast strain to accentuate the body of this wine. It works a treat. 

17.5/20
2023 Mora Pinot Rosé Bannockburn RRP $42

Pale, dry (1.8 grams RS) and made from Felton terraces vineyards in Bannockburn without skin contact, which accounts for its pale salmon colour and light body. Three months on lees adds mouthfeel, texture, weight body to the wine, which adds depth and length of flavour. 

18.5/20
2024 Mora Laeto Bannockburn RRP $27

Laeto means lush and this wine more than lives up to the name. Made from hand picked grapes from Mora’s Felton Terraces vineyard in Bannockburn, it was 50% whole bunch and 50% whole berry fermentated with the carbonic maceration portion spending two weeks going through intracellular fermentation. This brings lifted fruity aromas to the plush, smooth mouthfeel. 

If you're a fan of chillable reds, here's a great addition to the range of lively red wines to enjoy lightly chilled. 

18.5/20
2024 Mora Pinot Noir Bannockburn RRP $55

A thought provoking Pinot Noir; full bodied, elegant and silky, made from two vineyards in Bannockburn with 84% Felton Terraces and 16% Cairnmuir. The grapes were destemmed into stainless steel tanks with one third wild yeast fermented, which suggests the savoury aromas in this wine, which spent 10 months ageing in French oak, 20% new. 

* Central Otago has 2,163 hectares of producing vineyard land in New Zealand, 80% of which is devoted to Pinot Noir, making it the leading region for Pinot Noir. 

Photographs of Mora's Annual Harvest Celebration were taken by Anda Bulgakova, Brandstories.