• French oak
• Sweet plum
• Nutmeg
• Lingering finish

"Youthfully charming and inviting, the bouquet shows sweet plum, raspberry, nutmeg and floral aromas, followed by a fruit-expressive palate that's pristine and finely flowing. Elegantly textured and structured, finishing lingering and silky. At its best: now to 2027" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Nov 2023

Our Reserve Pinot Noir has delicious red berry flavours and a full, rich palate. Spicy oak and silky tannins combine for an elegant, lingering finish.

Our Reserve wines are expertly crafted from selected vineyards with impressive flavour concentration and palate weight. Each bottle of Rapaura Springs tells a story of a lifetime in Marlborough – of water, wine and of generations of family working with nature. The journey of our wine begins far from our vineyards. Pure water from the snow-capped Southern Alps travels six-months through braided rivers and underground aquifers to emerge crystal clear at the Rapaura Springs that run through our home vineyard.

The fruit for our 2022 Reserve Marlborough Pinot Noir is from a selection of premium Pinot Noir vineyard sites throughout Marlborough. After harvest, the fruit was cold soaked for around five days to extract flavour, tannins, and colour. Fermentation followed, in a selection of small open top tanks, using a selection of yeasts. Each ferment was plunged three times a day. The wine was left to macerate for three to five days before a gentle pressing off the skins. The wine was aged in French oak for 10 months, including 20% new oak.

The 2022 growing season began with significant rain, marking the end of three years of drought in Marlborough. A period of warmth in early December produced a welcome and better than average fruit-set. In late February we had a couple of significant rains which replenished the soil moisture levels that had reduced during summer.

During the two weeks that followed we had cool days and nights which meant the acidities remained on the  high side. Harvest coincided withthe peak of New Zealand’s Omicron outbreak, which put some pressure on staffing. Excellent teamwork meant we were able to harvest our fruit as it was ready, retaining vibrant acidity and concentrated fruit flavour.