A nose of fresh plums and cherry blossoms allude to this wine’s central delicate fruit aromatics. The details are found by spending time with the wine, allowing it to open up and show the warmer side with vanilla and leather.

The palate is subtle but complex with finely-spread tannins. Open and calm at the front, acidity draws the wine inwards in the middle before it shifts its weight towards the back palate, where it closes in with a combination of fruit and oak flavours.

This is an intriguing wine that doesn’t readily give away its secrets. To define this wine requires time in order to get to know the complexities and layers that are in store.

WINEMAKING - We harvest all our fruit by hand into small tubs. The fruit is sorted the following day, cold, and is all destemmed into 900kg ferment vessels. We let the newly filled vessels acclimatise and warm so that a natural fermentation occurs. An occasional hand plunge helps to keep the ferments happy and homogenous. After between 14 and 20 days in the fermenting vessel, we pressed the wines and transferred them to large format barrels, 300 and 500 litres, for 12 months. 

TECHNICAL INFORMATION - Vineyard source(s): McCreanor Vineyard, 37 Princess Street, Martinborough, NZ Harvest dates: 23 March - 5 April      |      Harvest Brix: 21.5 - 23 Brix Alcohol by Volume: 13%     |     pH 3.7      |     TA: 5.7 g/l

Winemaker Sam Weaver describes The Abyss Pinot Noir as an iron fist in a velvet glove. It's made with grapes grown on a hillside vineyard, which backs onto a precipitous cliff, hence the name, The Abyss. Vines were planted here in 2000 at a high density of approximately 5000 vines to the hectare, which is unusual for New Zealand. All of these grapes are 100% certified organic with BioGro New Zealand and also grown biodynamically. A high proportion of whole berries were included in the ferment with indigenous yeasts and the wine was aged in French oak barrels for 18 months with a modest 10% new oak.

Churton Estate founder and winemaker Sam Weaver cut his teeth on the classic wines of the world while working in fine wine retail in the United Kingdom. He and his wife Mandy Weaver then moved to New Zealand and set about creating one of this country's most focussed small wineries; a brand that does live up to the dream of creating 100% estate grown grapes, 100% certified organic production and 100% bottled on site, nearly all of the wines without fining or filtration. All the grapes are hand picked and natural yeasts ferment the vast majority of wines they make. These qualitative decisions impact every step of their winemaking in a positive fashion, providing exceptional quality grapes which in turn express themselves in outstanding wines.

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.

A great expression of Gibbston Valley Pinot Noir with earthy aromas and notes of wild thyme, raspberries and red cherries from the dramatic cool climate region. Coal Pit is an elevated hillside vineyard and small production are key ingredients that go into making Coal Pit Tiwha Pinot Noir a wine that stands out from the crowd with its earthy robust style and delicacy; the classic iron fist in a velvet glove.

Coal Pit Pinot Noir is a small scale wine made entirely from estate grown grapes on a sloping hillside vineyard planted on 12 hectares in the Gibbston Valley in Central Otago. The soils here are schist on these warm north facing slopes and the Pinot Noir clones planted are a mix of 115, 10/5, 777 and 5. Some vines here date back to the original plantings in 1994 and remain on their own roots while others are now grafted. The Coal Pit Winery is owned by Rosie Dunphy, who bought the site in 2001 and built a winery onsite in 2007. She named the Tiwha Pinot Noir in tribute to her late father. The Coal Pit winery name pays homage to the early pioneers and gold miners in the region.  

The artwork on the Tiwha label is by Chris Heaphy and the original painting is on the wall inside the winery's tasting room.

This outstanding expression of Pinot Noir comes from one of the smallest wine regions in New Zealand, the cool climate Waitaki Valley in North Otago. 

Flavours of ripe plums, red cherries and a very subtle but noticeable smoky aroma all intermingle in this beautifully complex Pinot from the outstanding, if challenging climate in Waitaki - a tiny and great quality wine region. 

Located on the north facing slopes of the Brancott Valley, Clayvin Vineyard takes its unique name from the clay based soil profile that lies beneath the vineyard. The complex clay profile varies across the vineyard, allowing a number of different varieties to be grown, including Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

The clay soil gives our Clayvin Pinot Noirs richness and generosity and an immediately appealing soft texture.

High density planting allows for very low yields per vine. Low yielding vines tend to produce wines of great concentration and richness.

This vineyard consistently produces grapes of outstanding quality.

Premium classic Pinot Noir Rose in classic packaging

Dry, lightly coloured, refreshing, balanced, delicate and everything else you want in a rose.

Yes  - it is wine with a tap. it's really good wine, yes again. We have sourced the very newest packaging that allows us to put this high end wine in a cylinder, allows you to have a glass when you want with nothing to worry about including not finishing the bottle. Finally premium wine with convienence.

New tech delivers no wastage, fresh with every glass, lasts up to a month, fully recyclable, and less than half the carbon footprint of the same wine in bottles. Times are a changing so get with a new programme - BigTed

Grapes from our Estate vineyards.
100% organic, vegan friendly and you can travel with this wee beauty, pop a small chiller pad in the top to keep it cool

Artwork by Callum Robertson

2 litres - 2.67 bottles.

TED  - redefining wine culture

The Elder Pinot Noir is made from grapes grown on a small, elevated, stony, north facing vineyard, situated south of Martinborough township on White Rock Road. It's produced by Mike and Margaret Hanson and Nigel and Bridgit Elder, hence the name.

The wine is an earthy, delicate style of Pinot Noir, made for the two couples by winemaker Paul Mason of Martinborough Vineyards. 

TASTING NOTES: Aromas of ripe dark red berry fruits dominate the nose with hints of spice and floral notes in the background add complexity. Velvet soft tannins form the backbone of this succulent and vibrant Pinot Noir. Spice flavours come through on the mid palate along with rich cherry fruit flavours and underlying savoury notes. This is a superbly balanced, elegant and weighted Pinot capable of ageing for up to ten years.

A complex Martinborough Pinot Noir made by wine maker Paul Mason that offers aromas of soft red and dark cherry and plum, complemented by hints of exotic spice and earthiness. On the palate, the wine is tight and structured, laced with spicy, savoury notes and a lingering, herbal acidity.

Intense ruby colour with a pronounced, deep aroma. A nose of dark cherry, black plums, wild thyme and gentle oak spice. A bold, concentrated and balanced palate, with dark fruits, mushroom, dried spices and gentle wood flavours. Scrumptious textures with a gripping but lush mouthfeel, balanced acidity, gum coating tannin and a long refined finish. A truly special wine that reflects our viticultural, winemaking and lifestyle practices. Incredible drinking now but well worth cellaring for 10+ years.

Food pairings: 

Perfect winter wine for beside the fire, venison stew, slow cooked beef cheeks.

Expert Reviews

Impressively complex and enticing, the bouquet shows dark plum, wild strawberry, thyme, porcini, cured meat, and hazelnut aromas. The concentrated palate exhibits plush texture and expansive mouthfeel, superbly framed by beautifully melded tannins, simultaneously making it sumptuous and refined with a sustained, gratifying finish. At its best: now to 2035.

96 points, 5 stars Sam Kim, Wine Orbit.

Great colour and brightness with a bouquet to match, there's power and richness with scents of ripe red berry fruits and new barrel  spices, smoke and draw. Aromas of dried raspberry and plum, violet and rose, then a mineral clay and stoy soil quality. Delicious on the palate with noticeable textures from tannins and acidity framing the core fruit flavours very nicely. An impactful wine with complexity and tension, lengthy and purity. Best drinking from 2027 through 2034+.

95 Points - Outstanding, Cam Douglas MW

Dry, dark and full bodied fleshy black plum flavours with a beautiful silky textured mouthfeel. This single vineyard Pinot Noir is made from  hand picked grapes grown on the Wrekin Vineyard in the Southern Valleys, Marlborough. Most of the grapes were destemmed with a small portion of 15% whole bunches to add structure and weight to the wine, which was fermented warm (up to 31 degrees Celcius) then transferred to French oak, 27% new for 10 months of ageing. This wine has hints of smoky flavour with a rich, dense earthy aroma leading into beautiful dark fruit flavours of plums and black cherries.

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.

This is our pick of the super tasty bunch of beautifully fragrant, structured, lingeringly flavoursome Corafin Pinot Noirs and is from the Settlement Vineyard, which is situated in the Southern Valleys in Marlborough. It is an outstandingly concentrated, full bodied style of Pinot, proof that this country's biggest wine region is far from a one trick pony - and is also certified organic. 

Akitu A1 has all the bells and whistles of great Pinot Noir with seductive red floral and fruity aromas leading into a full bodied, silky and structured wine with 40% whole bunch fermentation and five different clones of Pinot Noir adding complexity. The dominant clone in the blend is Abel (a clone is a variation of a grape variety), which lends this Pinot its impressive structure and a silky mouthfeel. It goes without saying that it takes a warm year and ripe grapes to include a high proportion of whole bunches in the fermentation tank, stalks and all. This wine benefits from its high portion of whole bunches and is possibly the best A1 from Akitu yet. A modest 20% new French oak was used to mature the wine. This lends it weight, smoothness and a soft mouthfeel while allowing the fruit to remain in second place after the charry complexity.

The home of Akitu 

Andrew Donaldson planted his vineyard with 100% Pinot Noir in 2002 and has since developed three distinctive styles of wine from this great red grape variety. Two reds (Akitu A 1 and Akitu A2) lead the production while a Pinot Blanc is now part of the high quality stable of wines from this producer. 

Donaldson employs winemaker P J Charteris to make the wines. 

At Mt Barker, in New Zealand's South Island, in a high glacial valley of sunshine and rain shadow on the edge of the earth, each season leave its own vivid imprint on our vintage.  Extreme temperature variations, alpine air, altitude, adversity... all the wild elements of this exhilarating land combine in a Pinot Noir of great quality from the world's southernmost wine region.

Amisfield wines began life on the shores of beautiful Lake Hayes, which remains home to this brand's cellar door and restaurant while the majority of grapes grown for these wines are now in the Cromwell Basin, most notably in Pisa which is where the winery production takes place. Ths wine is made from hand harvested grapes, which are treated to a natural ferment (no added yeasts) with approximately 10% whole bunchclusters added and maturation for 15 months in 20% French oak. This Pinot Noir is dry, full bodied and smooth with elegant spicy notes. It drinks well now and can definitely age well for the medium to long term; up to and beyond 10 years.

Fresh red berry fruits aromas combine with a distinctive dried herb nose, with layers of pot pourri and spice. Chalky tannins and lively acidity entwine around a core of vibrant red fruits. This is a fresh and aromatic wine of elegance and poise.