Why is Pinot Noir special?

Terroir

Danger! Good Pinot Noir is addictive. Also, it is expensive.

Few places in the world can produce wines with the specific Pinot Noir flavour. Pinot grapes will grow in warmer or wetter climates, but their wine lacks the distinctive pinot aromas and textures displayed by wines from a few regions in New Zealand, Victoria, Tasmania, Oregon, and from the Burgundy region of France. Pinots from warmer regions are not the same; they may be perfectly good in their own right but don't really taste the way that Pinot should.

The Central Otago terroirs are unique within New Zealand and make the production of good Pinot Noir seem deceptively easy. The dry air limits disease pressure making organic viticulture relatively easy. Stony infertile soils and low rainfall limit vigor, so vines put their energy into producing low volumes of intensely flavoured grapes.

Maori Point has a distinctive terroir. The soil is wind-blown loess over deep glacial gravels. Within a metre of the surface large boulders form a layer 40 metres deep over an underlying clay pan. Our wines have a distinctive mineral characteristic which probably derives from the stony soil. The original vegetation has been left in the inter-rows, a mixture of perennial grasses and deep rooting herbs and flowers, such as Echium vulgare (Vipers bugloss). This is mown and mulched under the vines.


Varieties and clones

Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir are closely related, to the extent that individual Pinot Gris vines sometimes revert to producing dark grapes.

Pinot Noir clones

The classic Central Otago clone is 10/5. Our block of 10/5 has distinctly higher acids than found in our other clones, and tannins from the thick-skinned grapes give a firm background to the wines.

The Californian clone UCD5 is early ripening with high sugar levels.

Abel, the "gumboot" clone, is said to be derived from cuttings from Domain Romaneé Conti, smuggled in a gumboot. Abel produces large bunches of small berries with intense flavour.

B115 is an early selection made by the French viticulture research centre in Burgundy, and makes up a large part of the clonal vines in Burgundy.

B777 is a more recent cultivar from Burgundy, again selected for production of high quality wine

Pinot Gris

We have three clones; selection Ovaille, Barrie and 2/15. These vary slightly in their ripening times and we think the 2/15 has the most intense flavours.





John Harris and Marilyn Duxson, 413 Maori Point Road, Tarras Ph 03 428 8842 or Cell 027 243 2725