Wine of the week
Pinot Noir is the most significant red grape variety in New Zealand with 75% of the country's 6,804 hectares of reds, the vast majority of which are planted in the South Island. The most important North Island region for Pinot Noir is the Wairarapa but since there's a plethora of regions beginning with 'Wai' (don't get me started), let's focus for now on Martinborough, the heart of this high quality, often wind-beaten wine region.
The wines have been impressive from day one in the late 1980s but Pinot Noir is gaining ground in quality every time a superlative vintage comes along. Enter 2024, wines from which are beginning to make an appearance (with more to come) and here's another great year - 2021.
Disclaimer - I feel bound to say at this point that I taste extremely widely in terms of varietals and countries, despite the inevitable impression that my work focusses on Pinot Noir as most of this blog has over the past six months. That's purely a result of needing sleep as well as a day job and time to fit in additional writing... Watch this space for more diversity as well as more Pinot Noirs.
The following Pinot is one of the most exceptional wines in my glass so far this year . The 2020 Blue Earth Pinot Noir was a top wine in a tasting I hosted in Te Muna Valley, Martinborough, last week.
This new release is even better.
Blue Earth founders and owners, Margaret and Mike Hansen, hold their wines back in bottle, which means some of the ageing has already been done for us. That's a win, as is this wine.
Wine of the week
2021 Blue Earth Pinot Noir RRP $69
Blue Earth is famous for its olive grove perched on a hillside south of Martinborough but its Pinot Noir is the estate’s other quiet hero, an unmistakably cool climate Pinot with brooding dark spice aromas and a core of concentrated black fruit. Winemaker Paul Mason happens to be the nearest neighbour to the Hansen's and is also the winemaker of this bold, beautiful new Pinot Noir, which spent 10 months in oak, 11% of which was new oak which allows the wine to put its most authentic foot forward, with fruit-led flavours supported by excellent concentration.
The 2021 vintage was small in the volume of grapes harvested and in the size of the berries (grapes) but wow, what wines.
The growing season began with the earliest budburst ever experienced in Martinborough and a spring that was warmer than average but with strong winds, punctuated with several near frosts and prolonged cold, windy and wet weather throughout the critical weeks of fruit set. This led to variable crop levels in most grape varieties. Summer was more settled but by then, the young grapes on the vines were so small that the result was a vintage of wines made from tiny grapes - for many people. I can testify to being somewhat taken aback that wine could even be made from such tiny grapes because I walked around a lot of vineyards that summer. The flavours are fantastic, as a result of that concentration of flavour.
This wine is five years young and will evolve in a steady and delicious journey of savoury, earthy notes that are the hallmark of Martinborough Pinot Noir. It can confidently be cellared for nine to 10 years+ because - previous aged wines from this vineyard start hitting their real stride at anything from five to 10 years old - and then some.
Available from Martinborough Wine Merchants and directly from Blue Earth.
