Charles Wiffen and his family are well known for producing well priced (affordable), well liked (very good quality) wines in a range of styles, all from Marlborough grapes.

While Merlot is the second most planted red in Marlborough, it lags a long way behind the popular Pinot Noir, but wines such as this show another, softer side to the red wine story in this country's biggest wine region. Good drinking now and very good value for money.

Soft plush Merlot with the black olive flavours of Cabernet Sauvignon’s impressive structure both add great balance to this powerful wine from Clearview Estate in Hawke’s Bay. Flavours here are dark and brooding black olives, dried woody thyme with all its aromatic intensity, supported by the velvety smoothness of Malbec, which makes up a small portion of this wine. 

This is a wine that drinks well now and can age to evolve even more impressive flavours for up to 10 years. 

About Clearview Estate

Clearview Estate is one of oldest, most well established wineries in Hawke's Bay and is situated on the Te Awanga Coast, south of Napier. It's a great place to visit for tastings at the cellar door as well as lunch in the dappled shade of the established courtyard area. The winery was founded by Tim Turvey, winemaker and co-owner. The current winemaker is the multi talented Matt Kirby.

Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir is regarded as an icon Pinot Noir from the world's southernmost wine region, the dramatically beautiful mountainous, Central Otago. This wine is made by the Dicey family, one of the first to plant grapes in Bannockburn, south of the Kawarau River. Their pioneering work in this region triggered rapid expansion in the area's modern wine history.

This wine is dry with powerful fruit driven flavours and a smooth, approchoable style, even when this wine is youthful. It drinks well now and can age for a further four to five years. 

Luscious, deep-fruit aromas of red cherries and raspberries rise from the glass. The palate is crisply layered and mouth filling with fine tannins. Ripe red fruit obtains complexity from hints of spicy characters, tea leaf and earth. The texture has sophistication and elegance, being sumptuous and refreshing at the same time.

Rabbit Ranch is one of the best known and highest volume Pinot Noirs produced in the world’s southernmost wine regions, Central Otago. It is made from grapes grown around the wider Central Otago region, pushing softness and approachability in a light to medium bodied, fruit forward style each year. It drinks well as a youthful wine and is not intended to be cellared for the long term.

A steep vineyard in Omihi that was established in 1999 has now been renamed as Damsteep (aptly enough) and is home to the grapes that find their way into this pretty aromatic Pinot Noir with its smooth and savoury flavours of fruity red berries, wrapped in firmly structured earthy notes and a lingering, silky finish. This is a great drink now from a very good vintage for quality and it will age well for up to five years, possibly longer. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal sulphur.

Marlborough PInot Noir from certified organic, hand picked grapes given wild yeast fermentation which results in a complex, smooth and savoury tinged wine with impressively smooth mouthfeel and a long finish. The wine aged for 18 months in French oak, 30% new, This wine is complex when youthful but also has great aging potential of up to 10 years, potentially longer. This is a stunner from an extremely experienced winemaking team. Certified organic with BioGro NZ.

Prophet Rock’s flagship Pinot Noir – Sourced from their ‘Home Vineyard’ on a steep, elevated terrace in the Bendigo sub-region of Central Otago. Here, altitude, climate, soils and meticulous viticulture combine to produce Pinot Noir with stature and concentration. Careful cellaring will reward collectors over the next 10+ years.

Sarah-Kate and Dan Dineen are partners in wine and in life and dab hands at producing powerful Pinot Noirs in Central Otago. This one comes from grapes grown on two of Maude's vineyards, Sitting Bull and Queensberry. It's a medium bodied Pinot Noir, dry, earthy and with refreshing red fruit forward flavours.

It drinks beautifully now and can age for a further six to seven years. One of our favourites.

Maori Point Pinot Noir is a full bodied expression of the hero red grape of Central Otago and named after a bend on the Mata-Au (also known as the Clutha River) where Māori prospectors panned for gold in the 1860s.

The wine brand is owned by two families who grow the grapes and employ experienced winemakers in the region to produce their wines. The philosophy of the owners is to produce high quality wines made from hand picked grapes from vineyard sites with low yields, using wild yeast fermentations, minimal sulphur additions and using sustainable practices as much as possible. This is their quest and the wines are elegant renditions of Otago's edgy climate with its hot summer days and cool seasons on both sides of ripening. 

Appealingly aromatic, this Pinot Noir reveals notes of Morello cherry and bramble ont he nose. On the palate - fine, silky tannins and juicy acidity provide an elegant structure, with complexity coming from gentle toast and woodsmoke characters.

Sam Neill’s latest Pinot Noir is youthful, bright, boldly fruity with firm tannic structure and the ability to age, all of which makes it a good contender for decanting prior to enjoying right now. It’s a complex and interesting Pinot Noir as a blend of Neill’s four small certified organic Central Otago vineyards with 37% from The Fusilier Vineyard in Bannockburn, 7% from the elevated, cool climate of The Last Chance Vineyard in Earnscleugh, Alexandra, 40% from The Red Bank Farm & Vineyard and 22% from The First Paddock in Gibbston. All grapes were hand picked, 54% destemmed and all fermented with wild yeasts. The wine was given 10 months aging in French oak, 18 per cent new. It’s a very good wine and will reward further cellaring.

Greystone is one of North Canterbury's wine stars situated on the slopes of limestone rich hills in Omihi. All of the grapes that go into Greystone wines are 100% certified organic with BioGro NZ and all are estate grown. No additional fruit is purchased to supplement production, which is one of many incremental steps that go into Greystone's high quality wines. 

This impressive Pinot Noir is the top of the Pinot tree at Greystone. It's made from fully destemmed whole berries which were cold macerated and fermented with wild yeasts, 25% of the wine having been fermented in small tanks amongst the vines, which ensures a completely wild vineyard yeast fermentation. The wine is bottled without fining, filtration or cold stabilisation.

It drinks well now but will reward those with patience to wait for it to develop further with age and has the potential to evolve positively for up to a decade, if kept in good conditions. 

Certified organic with BioGro NZ.

About Greystone

The Greystone wine story began in 2000 when the Thomas Family bought an old sheep farm on the Omihi hills in the Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. The rolling limestone hills lured this family in and their goal was a single minded one: to make great wines from the limestone rich soils here. Fast forward 20 years and Greystone is one of the great (and, some might say, yet to be fully discovered) wineries in this outstanding wine region. Not least due to the work of winemaker Dom Maxwell and general manager Nick Gill, who began working together in 2005 and has grown along with the brand and quality. 

Earthy flavours and velvety texture make this impressive Pinot Noir one of the best from Martinborough and it comes from one of the region's first three wineries - Martinborough Vineyards.

Te Tera is made from Martinborough Vineyards’ more youthful vines, which range between nine and 24 years old from a vineyard south of Martinborough village but within the region's stony wine 'terrace' appellation. This vineyard, situated on Frater's Road, produces grapes that lend deep aromatic flavours of dark cherries,  dried herbs and spices, all of which instantly grab your attention on the nose of this elegant Pinot Noir. The palate shows soft, rich fruit flavours with a hint of spice. 

The grapes in this wine were 100% destemmed and fermented with wild yeasts in open top tanks for approximately three weeks. Hand plunging is followed by gentle pressing to barrels for 10 months aging on lees in French oak, 15% of it new. 

This is a lovely wine that consistently delivers rewarding rich flavours held in a smooth silky texture. 

The Main Divide is the name of the majestic Southern Alps, which form the back bone of the South Island, and it is also the name of a range of great value wines which consistently over deliver on depth of flavour and complexity for the price. 

This Pinot Noir is made 100% from North Canterbury grapes, 25% of which were whole bunch fermented with natural yeasts. The wine was given a week long, post ferment maceration in French oak, approximately 20% new.

It's a weighty, earthy style with lively dark and red fruit flavours. It delivers big time for the money.