jamie goode's wine blog: A truly beautiful NZ Pinot Noir

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

A truly beautiful NZ Pinot Noir

I just love this wine. I suspect there's something special about Pinot Noir from the Wairarapa (Martinborough) region: when I visit NZ again early next year, I'm going to pay a visit to explore further.

Martinborough Vineyard 'Te Tera' Pinot Noir 2008 Martinborough, New Zealand
13.5% alcohol. Beautifully focused with elegant cherry/berry/spice nose. Ripe but balanced, and really alive. The palate is beautifully elegant with smooth, pure fruit. Just fantastically elegant. 93/100 (£14.99 Majestic, but £11.99 if you buy two from the end of this week)

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7 Comments:

At 7:48 PM, Anonymous kirk-sandihurstwine said...

is your NZ trip planned already or will you have a moment to visit me here in christchurch. we have two pinots - a central and waipara - that i'd like you to taste/comment on

 
At 9:23 PM, Blogger Mark said...

93?! This seems pretty enthusiastic for what is (I believe) their second wine :-)

 
At 9:37 PM, Anonymous Alex Lake said...

I would have thought it was their 3rd wine - or do they not do the reserve Pinot any more?

By coincidence, I'm just drinking the Shelmerdine Pinot Noir which is quite Kiwi in style to my mind. Enjoyable fun wine.

 
At 9:45 PM, Blogger Jamie said...

Kirk - I won't be able to get to Christchurch this time - are you at PN2010?
Mark, Alex, yes, it is - and while this may be their second or third label, I have to call it as I see it - it's really good. I will probably buy a bottle and have another look in a while.

 
At 8:12 AM, Anonymous Alex Lake said...

Have you ever blogged on your thought processes when deciding on a score? Especially when comparing pretty different wines (eg. the German Riesling you recently also gave 93/100 to).

FWIW, I usually think along pretty mercinary lines up to the low 90's - i.e. I wouldn't score a wine 90 unless I was prepared to pay at least £15 or so for it. In the upper reaches, it's more a case of "is this among the very best wines I've ever tasted".

And it does sometimes happen that a 2nd or 3rd wine is "better" than the supposed 2st wine (I suspect Gran Reserva Rioja is a classic example, although sometimes it's a matter of where they are in their evolution)

 
At 9:28 AM, Blogger Tim Cohen said...

you beat me by about 2 days; I've got this wine to blog too and like you think it's a fair dinkum ripper.

 
At 8:13 PM, Blogger Paul - MV said...

thanks for the nice words. we put a lot of effort into making the te tera pinot a very good wine and have had lots of great reviews on it. technically it is our 3rd label but we now only make a reserve pinot in very small quantities (less than 1000 bottles) which helps make the MV and the te tera pinot better wines. will hopefully see you at PN2010. Cheers Paul

 

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