There’s a great saying “If Cabernet was created by God, then Pinot Noir was made by the Devil”, and certainly the devil is all in the detail with this grape variety.
Pinot Noir is one of the world’s most popular red wines however only really grows well in a small amount of cool climate regions with a long, consistent growing season. Here in New Zealand our best Pinot regions are the lower North Island and heading further South. Humidity is not Pinot’s friend! It also needs shelter away from extreme weather like wind and frost, so tucked into valleys and next to large bodies of water help.
Pinot is the prime example that light in body does not mean light in taste. With its unique ability to develop complex flavours, while retaining an easy drinking style it has carved out a reputation as the anytime wine.
Pinot Noir is very versatile to match with food and aids the digestion along. That high acidity cuts through fat and game flavours, making a great match with duck, pork and chicken. Another heavenly match is mushroom, which highlights the fruity flavours in Pinot.
Fish and red wine is always a tricky marriage, but with its light body and low tannin Pinot can go nicely with trout or salmon.
Perfect with vegetarian dishes it goes brilliantly with roasted vegetables, mushroom, and thyme. And the combination of high acidity and aromatics is always a match made in heaven with bread and cheese combinations, including pizza!
What sets New Zealand Pinot Noir apart from the world is our more medium to full body. Intense and expressive, with sufficient structure for long term ageing. Our high levels of UV here, mean the grapes produce a thicker skin naturally to protect themselves. This results in wines with more tannin and therefore more structure, making new challenges to keep the wines in balance!
The success of our style has given our wine exporters a much needed second string to their wine bow. Combined with New Zealand’s regional and sub-regional diversity, we can offer a breadth of exciting styles. Pinot Month is a great opportunity to look at how to navigate those styles, identifying the flavours you prefer, we’ve broken them down for you using our Flavour Wheel.
A quick guide to the regions:
WAIRARAPA
Dark, savoury and rich. Everything is dialled up with these wines. The aromas are of darker fruits, the palate is richer, fuller and sweeter – almost into plum and chocolate notes, with a tell-tale structure of beautiful long, fine tannins.
MARLBOROUGH
Our lightest style in body with red fruit on the nose, with bright raspberry flavours into cherry on the palate. Marlborough produces a freshness from its lower acidity, providing a linear structure. Wines from the Southern Valleys will tend towards a fuller bodied style.
NELSON
Highly expressive and aromatic, they produce structural wines with fine tannins and an earthy complexity. The Waimea Plains tend to be a prettier style, while Moutere delivers a weightier experience.
NORTH CANTERBURY
Red and Dark berry fruit with generous spice notes. Good structure and acidity, with beautiful earthy, savoury tones.
CENTRAL OTAGO
The wines of the Gibbston Valley and Wanaka Districts are typically sweet, soft and upfront red fruits like strawberry and raspberry, with spice, fresh herb, and even a minerality. The warmer areas like Bannockburn, Bendigo and Lowburn produce fuller and more tannic wines with cherry and rich dark fruit flavours. If you smell dried thyme in your Pinot, its likely to be from Alexandra!
Every year Fine Wine Delivery hunts high and low to find you a stunning selection of wines that showcase each of these regions. There’s a wonderful array of vintages available. A few from 2018 which are drinking beautifully now with some bottle age on them, and then we hit the golden trifecta of 2019, 2020, and 2021. Three stellar back-to-back vintages, and some of our most highly rated years of the past decade!
To shop Fine Wine Deliveries stunning selection of Pinot Noir click here
