Exceptional North Canterbury Pinot Noir made in small volumes from the evocatively named isolated hill vineyard in Waiau. Spicy aromas and structured tannins lead into a full body wine made using indigenous yeast fermentation and spending 26 days on skins with ageing for 15 months in French oak.

This wine comes from winemaker Dom Maxwell, the talented winemaker at Greystone. Forager is his own personal winemaking project. 

This is drinking beautifully with silky mouthfeel and ripe red cherry fruit as well as dark plum flavours; a gorgeous wine with earthy depths of flavour. Stunning new release from the Huntress, winemaker Jannine Rickards, who uses 40% whole bunch ferment in her Pinot Noir - a winemaking method that enhances structure and adds grapevine tannin to wine rather than relying on oak for weight in the wine. This is the fourth vintage of Huntress Pinot and is made from On Giant's Shoulders Vineyard; it's a blend of four different clones of Pinot Noir;  10/5, Abel, 828 and clone 5.

Delicious, made in small volumes, get in quick. 

Gamey, savoury, deliciously refreshing Pinot Noir from Martinborough's next new big thing - Te Muna Valley, a dramatically majestic sub region for grapes that is situated 9 kilometres east of Martinborough village. 

Big Sky Wines is on the high alluvial terraces of Martinborough's Huangarua River at Te Muna, 9 kilometres east of the village. Low yielding deep gravels, hot days and cool nights result in wines that are deep and complex. This is their flagship wine from a low vigour, low cropping vineyard.  Hand picked, crushed into two tonne open fermenters with 10% whole bunch fermentation and minimal crushing and with wild fermentation followed by 12 months in French oak, 12.5% of which was new. And therein lies the beauty of this insanely delicious Pinot Noir with its ripe berry fruit flavours of dark cherries and plums, balanced by mouth filling savouriness, warm spice, and silky tannins. 

The Big Sky story

Jeremy Corban and Katherine Jacobs founded Big Sky Wines in the Te Muna Valley, Martinborough, in 2005. They have since expanded their small vineyard, which is predominantly planted in Pinot Noir and also has a little Sauvignon Blanc, which they give extra textural complexity to with a little time in old oak on lees. 

Earthy notes and freshly crushed forrest leaves lead the aromas in this complex and smooth Pinot Noir from Johner Estate winery in the central Wairarapa. This is an outstanding wine with depth and richness providing a plush mid palate texture to this lively, lovely wine. Drink now or cellar for five to six years+.

Pinot lovers will adore this spicy, earthy and juicy medium bodied Pinot Noir from Marlborough's Southern Valleys, where elevated hillside vineyard sites benefit the early ripening Pinot grape. This is a great red with structure and impressive flavours for drinking now and also for cellaring, if willpower allows.

Celestia is the apt name for one of Martinborough's most structured, serious and age worthy Pinot Noirs made using 100% whole bunch fermentation, a technique that adds structure and depth to the wine. This is the first vintage of this wine is from the superlative 2020 vintage and name comes from the big sky views from Big Sky Vineyard in Te Muna Valley, Martinborough. Celestia Pinot Noir is made with 100% whole bunch fermentation in seasoned puncheons with ageing for two years. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered. The result is a very perfumed wine with aromas of rosehips, black tea, black fruit and undergrowth, with a dense and dark palate, fine tannins and a satiny texture.

The Big Sky story

Jeremy Corban and Katherine Jacobs founded Big Sky Wines in the Te Muna Valley, Martinborough, in 2005. They have since expanded their small vineyard, which is predominantly planted in Pinot Noir.

One per customer please - thank you

Cornish Point is one of Central Otago's great Pinot Noirs and is a dark fruited, smooth, dry and full bodied expression of Pinot Noir from the eponymous 7.6 hectare vineyard. The vineyard is typically the first to be harvested for Felton Road as it is a warm site, bordered by the Clutha River on one side and the Kawarau River on the other. This is relatively unusual, in being almost entirely surrounded by water, which moderates the microclimate on this site, enabling earlier ripening grapes with soft, smooth tannic structure and bold ripe fruit flavours of black cherry and summer berries, supported by a firm backbone of tannin. 

Cornish Point is an old gold miners’ settlement located adjacent to the Hartley and Reilly diggings where the first large find of gold was made in the Central Otago gold rush. It was named after the Cornish gold miners who lived there and was abandoned in the late 19th century when it was planted as an apricot orchard.

About Felton Road

Felton Road winemaker Blair Walter and owner Nigel Greening (who bought the winery in 2000) are a formidable team producing elegant, powerful southern Pinots from their estate vineyards, all now organically and biodynamically certified. 

They specialise in producing limited bottlings from their different vineyard blocks and sites in Bannockburn, Central Otago. 

Evocative by name and by nature; a wine with great structure thanks to 10% whole bunch fermentation adding depth to the smooth, deliciously savoury flavours. Black Rabbit Vineyard is made from grapevines grown on soils that are 400 million years old on a north facing site that was planted in 2002 at an elevation of 250 to 315 metres above sea level.

The high temperature variation between day and night lends the grapes an elongated window of ripening, which results in savoury notes, a full body and complex flavours of black cherries, a hint of cedar and savoury oak with smooth dark plum aromas and a smooth, long finish. 

The grapes were fermented with wild yeasts and given 21 days on skins and maturation in oak for a year prior to being bottled, unfixed. 

The grapes in this wine come from the Yarrum Vineyard on the Brancott/Ben Morven ridge, a hillside from which all grapes are hand harvested and fermented with wild yeasts and daily plunging. This rich, dark, full bodied and flavoursome Pinot Noir has huge structure and ability to age, with earthy notes and ripe dark fruit flavours. This is one of Marlborough?s top Pinot Noirs. Worthy of a decanter, a large glass and time to enjoy its complexity.

SINGLE VINEYARD - PARKBURN VALLEY

DESCRIPTION:
The Pinot Noir from Viper Vineyard is crafted using grapes cultivated in the Grandstand Block, situated within the Viper Vineyard itself, nestled in the Parkburn region on the western shores of Lake Dunstan. This vineyard derives its name from the profusion of the wildflower "Vipers Bugloss" that blankets the surrounding area.

Perched upon an undulating terrace above the valley floor, the vineyard's soil predominantly consists of sandy loam layered over red clay fused with schist gravel. With the moderating influence of cooling daytime temperatures, the ripening process extends into the late season, imparting a spicy character to the wines, accompanied by deep fruit flavours and richness.

WINEMAKERS COMMENTS:
The wine exudes an aromatic and vibrant bouquet, showcasing notes of red cherry, pomegranate, and delicate, freshly bloomed florals. Fresh red fruit notes and herbal undertones rest on a foundation of silky tannins, evolving into a refined and enduring finish. Pronounced mineral nuances and acidity harmonize to create an invigorating and confident balance.

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.

Whitehaven Wines began life in 1994 as a romantic business for a couple of corporate escapees, Sue and Greg White, who had given up life in the rat race of Auckland for another kind of life aboard their yacht. When sailing around the country, they took shelter in the Marlborough Sounds from Pacific storms and fell in love with the region. An easy thing to do when harbouring in the spectacularly pristine waters of the Sounds. They decided to settle there on terra firma once more and try their hands at wine production, hiring a winemaker and beginning a business which has now been around for 26 years. Greg has sadly passed away now, leaving a legacy as well as his wife and daughter, Sam, to run the winery. Their winemaker is Peter Jackson.

A silky, elegant, structured and commanding wine, which drinks well now and can age for the medium to long term. The biodynamically farmed Calvert Vineyard is home to both Pinot Noir and a smidgeon of Chardonnay and is situated on Felton Road in Bannockburn, Central Otago. This vineyard lies just below the hills of the Bannockburn gold sluicings and makes beautiful wine, one of Central Otago's most consistently highly rated Pinot Noirs every year with its great fruit purity. approachability and aging potential.

A great investment in your cellar.

A special delicate expression of Pinot Noir made in the vineyard from start to finish; the grapes are fermented entirely in the vineyard in which they were grown. It's been a happy and extremely successful experiment at Greystone Winery, which 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 wine grew from an experiment that first took place in 2012 where wild yeasts were captured in the vineyard and used to ferment a Pinot Noir in the vineyard. It sounds only natural but is in fact highly unusual because grapes tend to be taken to the winery for fermentation. In this case, the winery ferment vessels came to the grapes.

The result is a slower than usual fermentation, due to cooler temperatures, especially at night time. 

This delicate Pinot shines a new light on this noble grape, which tastes silky, vibrant, fresh and delicate with a lingering finish and interesting flavour notes. 

It?s a wine for the cellar ? or a special occasion in your finest glassware now or soon. 

* This wine was one of only two in New Zealand to make it onto the 2020 Top 100 Wine Discoveries by North American wine critic Robert Parker.

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.