Hailing from the biogro certified Grava vineyard in Martinborough, it’s an electric expression of place.
Elegant and poised with earthy undertones and mineral flecked complexity.

Tasting Note A potpourri of dark petals and Indian spices dominate the inviting bouquet. Dark and deep fruit on the palate is amply supported by complexing savoury and earthy notes. It’s not just fruit, there’s so much more contributing. This is our diverse four vineyards coming together to superbly express the classic character of Bannockburn: black cherry fruit notes and silky, chocolate laden tannins. 

Introduction Commencing with meticulous site selection and vineyard design in 1991, Felton Road's story is one of refusal to compromise. A strict 100% estate policy with fully organic and biodynamic viticulture (BioGro and Demeter certified) ensures that our fruit arrives at the winery as pure as it can be, while our entire estate comes as close to true sustainability as is possible. The winery is also B Corp certified and a proud member of IWCA (International Wineries for Climate Action). A commitment to hands off winemaking: gravity flow, wild yeasts, wild malo, an avoidance of fining and filtration all help preserve the wine's expression of its terroir. The result is Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir which accurately express the authenticity and complexity of our unique vineyards.  

Gareth King; Viticulturist, Blair Walter; Winemaker, Nigel Greening; Vigneron. 

Vineyard & Viticulture 

Felton Road farms four properties totalling 34 ha in the Bannockburn subregion of Central Otago. This wine is a blend from our four vineyards; Cornish Point, Calvert, MacMuir and The Elms. Meticulous summer management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity. Shoot thinning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning and harvest are all carried out by hand to ensure optimum quality fruit. Cover crops are planted between rows to assist in vine balance and to improve soil health and general biodiversity. 

Vintage 

After a wet September, spring commenced with good soil moisture and bud burst occurred at the normal time of early October. Temperatures hovered around average with December being warm and dry, enabling a successful flowering and fruit set. The dry conditions prevailed throughout January and February limiting berry size and setting the scene for fruit with elevated phenolic material and complexity. Judicious use of irrigation was required to maintain sufficient vine health throughout this sustained dry period. Temperatures never spiked and hovered around average enabling a slow and steady path to maturity. A distinctive feature of March 2024 was the cool night temperatures preserving acidity, freshness and precision of fruit character. Pinot Noir was harvested from 19 March to 9 April.

Vinification

The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping, retaining 20% as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately long maceration on skins has extracted good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This wine was aged for 13 months in 20% new French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In accordance with our non-interventionalist approach to winemaking, this wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and malolactic, and was not fined or filtered.

Tasting Note 

Red cherry, plum and a hint of dried herbs open the nose in a delightfully fragrant manner. The aromatics deftly define the knife edge ripeness that’s critical for great Pinot Noir; dialled in with ease in the exceptional 2024 vintage. Cardamom, mace and cranberry make an appearance, followed by a finely poised mouthfeel. The silky tannins are luscious and sweet, providing backbone and length. A typically expressive Cornish Point.

Introduction

Commencing with meticulous site selection and vineyard design in 1991, Felton Road's story is one of refusal to compromise. A strict 100% estate policy with fully organic and biodynamic viticulture (BioGro and Demeter certified) ensures that our fruit arrives at the winery as pure as it can be, while our entire estate comes as close to true sustainability as is possible. The winery is also B Corp certified and a proud member of IWCA (International Wineries for Climate Action). A commitment to hands off winemaking: gravity flow, wild yeasts, wild malo, an avoidance of fining and filtration all help preserve the wine's expression of its terroir. The result is Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir which accurately express the authenticity and complexity of our unique vineyards.  Gareth King; Viticulturist, Blair Walter; Winemaker, Nigel Greening; Vigneron. 

Vineyard & Viticulture 

Felton Road farms four properties totalling 34 ha in the Bannockburn subregion of Central Otago. This wine is from Cornish Point vineyard where the close proximity to Lake Dunstan (surrounded on three sides) creates a unique mesoclimate. Fine loess and silt soils overlie alluvial gravels interspersed with calcareous seams. Meticulous summer management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity. Shoot thinning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning and harvest are all carried out by hand to ensure optimum quality fruit. Cover crops are planted between rows to assist in vine balance and to improve soil health and general biodiversity. 

Vintage 

After a wet September, spring commenced with good soil moisture and bud burst occurred at the normal time of early October. Temperatures hovered around average with December being warm and dry, enabling a successful flowering and fruit set. The dry conditions prevailed throughout January and February limiting berry size and setting the scene for fruit with elevated phenolic material and complexity. Judicious use of irrigation was required to maintain sufficient vine health throughout this sustained dry period. Temperatures never spiked and hovered around average enabling a slow and steady path to maturity. A distinctive feature of March 2024 was the cool night temperatures preserving acidity, freshness and precision of fruit character. Pinot Noir was harvested from 19 March to 9 April. 

Vinification  The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping, with 25% retained as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately long maceration on skins has extracted good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This wine was aged for 13 months in 20% new French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In accordance with our noninterventionalist approach to winemaking, this wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and malolactic, and was not fined or filtered.

Beautiful soft red fruited Pinot Noir from the original Lowburn Ferry Vineyard in Central Otago. This is a great wine with stature and power. 

This wine is made from Mt Maude Vineyard at the base of Mt Maude in Wanaka, a one hectare site planted at 400 metres elevation and where the grapes are grown without irrigation. This family owned site was planted in three Pinot Noir clones 667, 777 and 115. The wine is made without whole clusters in the ferment and with 18 days of maceration by winemakers Sarah Kate and Dan Dineen. 

It tastes silky, structured, sensitively balanced, long and fresh with great depth of secondary savoury earthy spice flavours married with red fruit and complex notes that will definitely develop further over time, evolving positively. All grapes in this wine were hand harvested and the name Kids Block refers to the owners - Dawn and Terry Wilson’s grandchildren. A row of vines was planted for each grandchild, all planted in 2000 and all in different Dijon Pinot Noir clones. 

This wine is one of the country's best Pinot Noirs, having won an extremely long string of awards and accolades over the decades, which both winemakers, Clive Paton and Helen Masters, attribute to, among other things, 40% of the wine being made from the Abel clone of Pinot Noir. This clone was famously (true story) brought in via a gumboot from a grand cru vineyard in Burgundy, France; the traditional classic home to the Pinot grape.

Abel brings structure and intensity to Pinot Noir, as does the climate in the Wairarapa, which heavily reduces potential yields at flowering time in spring, resulting in smaller bunch architecture and more intense flavours as a direct result. 

This wine drinks well now and undoubtedly has a long life ahead for those with wine cellars - and willpower.

A New Zealand classic - for good reason.

The name Ata Rangi is Maori for dawn sky and was chosen to portray the new beginning that the start of this winery represented for founder Clive Paton in the late 1970s.

Superb savoury Central Otago Pinot Noir with fragrant perfumed flavours of red cherries, cranberries and wild thyme, made from hand picked grapes grown on the Te Kano estate vineyard in Bannockburn, home to the winery's new cellar door and tasting room.

The grapes are fermented in separate vineyard lots then blended together and the finished wine is aged in French oak for 10 months, developing spicy notes which complement the wine's red cherry, red berry and wild thyme flavour notes. 

It's dry and medium bodied with a smooth soft character.

Central Otago at its liveliest and at an affordable price.

Taka K is the brainchild of Japanese born, North Canterbury based winemaker Takahiro Koyama, who has launched this fabulous new expression of Pinot Noir from the windy climate of Canterbury. Hot days, cool nights and thoughtful winemaking combine in this wine which has a medium body and intense flavours of smoked mushrooms, wild earth and a hint of thyme beautifully intermingled with red cherry aromas and dense plummy softness. 

Like diving into a velvet cushion in the glass. Need we say more.

The grapes in this wine were grown on an organically farmed vineyard on the eastern side of the Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. The vineyard has clay rich soil with a limestone influence and is undergoing transition to become certified organic. All grapes were fermented in open top fermenters with wild yeasts followed by ageing in French Oak barrels (no new oak) for about 10 months, then racked and blended into stainless steel tanks prior to the bottling without any fining or filtration.

The total production was 560 cases.

Fruit aromas of blackcurrant, dark cherries and plums unfold from the glass, combined with hints of dried herbs. The palate is very complex and enticing with a beautiful, smooth texture and a firm structure. Flavours of very ripe fruit, minerals, subtle leafiness and rosewood. The supporting role of the oak intensifies underlying dark chocolate and toasty characters.

Palliser Estate Pinot Noir is one of our favourites here at Regional, made with hand picked grapes grown on three vineyards in Martinborough - Hua Nui, home block and Pencarrow. Flavours of red fruit, smoky oak, a velvet texture and full body all make this incredibly elegant wine a keeper for up to five years. It also drinks beautifully now with its smooth texture and freshness. 

The grapes were given 5% whole bunch fermentation which adds structure, which is accentuated by French oak aging for 10 months.

Bottled in March 2023.

What the critics say

"Silky, smooth and powerfully elegant Pinot Noir from Palliser Estate."

Joelle Thomson, wine writer and wine programme director for Regional Wines

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. 

From an exceptional single site on Te Muna Road, the estate grown Pahi Vineyard is an individual site selection Pinot Noir sourced from designated rows on the famed Martinborough Terrace.

94 Points – James Suckling review

So floral, with cranberry and orange peel aromas that follow through to a medium body with sliced orange and peach flavours. Crunchy and delicious. So fresh and yummy. Some whole bunch fermentation.

94 Points Huon Hooke, The Real Review

Medium-full red with purple rim and reserved, shy aromas in the earthy/forest undergrowth and walnut spectrum. A patina of smoky oak too. The wine is rich and full in the mouth, with volume and amplitude. A deep and fleshy wine with loads of extract to match the intense flavours and big structure. Long, long finish. Serious pinot: long-term potential but also really appealing right now. It could cope with heartier meat dishes.

95 Points Cameron Douglas MS

This wine delivers complexity, a sense of site and vintage as well as complexity and power. Aromas and flavours of spiced berries, plum and barrel;  polished tannins and acidity framing the texture of this wine with flavours of plum and red berries, cherry and rose that follow. There’s a fine chalk dust residue on the finish that delivers more mouthfeel and carries extra flavour. A delicious wine. I enjoyed a glass of this with a smoke salmon and red beet risotto with lashing of parmesan cheese - a wonderful match. Best from late 2027 through 2034.

"Pahi has a long track record and is arguably the most impressive Pinot Noir in the Escarpment stable today." Joelle Thomson, 2023

We think these wines offer exceptionally good value for money and this Marlborough Pinot Noir offers a super tasty expression of Pinot with notes of complex earthy flavours as well as appealing red fruit and the balance of crisp acidity providing a lingering finish.

The name Kōparepare is Maori for gift and $1 from every bottle of wine is donated to LegaSea, a not for profit organisation set up by the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council in 2012 to raise awareness of the marine environment and inspire public support.

The wines are made by Whitehaven in Marlborough, which was founded by Greg and Sue White in 1994 after they sailed into the Marlborough Sounds to shelter from a storm in the early 1990s and fell for the natural beauty of the region and the haven it provided. 

The Wrekin Vineyard lies within its own small valley located on the north facing slopes of the Fairhall Valley. It is part of a sub-region of Marlborough known as the Southern Valleys.

This wine showcases the outstanding 2015 growing season for Pinot Noir and is made by Jeremy Hyland (vigneron) and winemaker H?tsch Kalberer.

Red and dark berries intertwine with maraschino cherries and the more savoury tones of Mediterranean herbs. The tannins are soft and integrated, an Iron fist in a silk glove.

From the esteemed biodynamic Wrekin Vineyard nestled in Marlborough's Clay Soil Southern Valley's.

Undergoing 100% Whole bunch carbonic fermentation this wine is full of deep red and dark berry fruit character, dry yet fruit forward with soft tannins.

Mulberries, red currants, crème de cassis and old-fashioned raspberry notes present a French nouveau style wine – dangerously thirst quenching when lightly chilled and smoothly moorish at room temperature. A wine to be enjoyed now.