Steve Davies is a rare type of winemaker. You know the kind I'm talking about. 

He grows all his own grapes, makes all his own wine, matures it in barrel on site (next door to the front door of his house) and markets it all himself. That's no mean feat in a crowded market of high volume, high marketing budget wines which dominate over 80% of wine sales today.

Fortunately (in a planned kind of way) Steve has a card up his sleeve, which is pretty hard to compete with. He owns the three hectare vineyard from which  Doctors Flat Bannockburn Pinot Noir takes its name. He lives on the land and he planned to do exactly what he's doing - produce a high quality single vineyard wine every year from one great grape variety. Pinot Noir.

The first vintage I tasted of his wine was 2008. He has since fine tuned his wines and in my notes they have gone from 17.5 (silver medal winners) to 18.5 (gold medal winners) over the past 12 years. He is one of Central Otago's few owner-operated wine producers and the fact that his Doctors Flat Pinot Noir  retails for under $50 is even more reason to make a beeline for it.

The schist soil on his vineyard site is a result of glacial ice deposited 480,000 years ago. It provides heat retention for the grapes to aid ripening and it also helps with drainage. All grapes in Doctors Flat Pinot Noir are hand harvested, every year. He has experimented with whole bunch fermentation and for the current 2016 vintage, 27% of the wine goes through whole bunch fermentation in small tanks with indigenous yeast (nothing added) then drained to French oak barrels (23% new) for 12 months prior to bottling without fining or filtration.
This is one of our staff favourite Central Otago Pinot Noirs every year and this vintage is one of the best yet. Just 970 dozen bottles are made.
It’s a pleasure right now and can age well for another seven to eight years, potentially longer.

PS... This wine is a great cellar investment

Steve Davies has huge winemaking experience under his belt, including in the United States as well as in Central Otago where he worked as winemaker for Carrick from its inception in 2002 until 2006. 

The 2016 Doctors Flat Bannockburn Pinot Noir is a great investment in your wine cellar.