"Youthful, fresh and vibrant red fruited bouquet with sweet and tart cherry, cranberry red rose aomras. Tense, youthful and dry on the palate with abundant acidity, fine to moderate tannins, spices and new oak flavours. Lengthy finsih, and well made. Decant for service with best window for drinking 2021 through 2027" Cameron Dougas, Feb 2019

This is engaging and mesmerising; the seductive bouquet shows sweet berry, truffle, vanilla, smoked game, dried herb and floral aromas, leading to a gracefully powerful palate that is fleshy and juicy. The wine displays stunning concentration while remaining exquisitely elegant and refined. It is symphonic and gratifying with layers of delectable flavours.

The Artists Collection is the pride of Ceres Wines, it’s about celebrating all those “Artists” involved in crafting these single site wines to reflect their place. Each bottle is adorned with the artwork of Odelle Morshuis (James Dicey’s wife) to echo a shared philosophy of capturing a moment in time and space.

Black Rabbit vineyard on Cairnmuir Road, Bannockburn. Black Rabbit is a 3.5hectare site on an elevation of 250 –315m.The basement geology is some of the oldest in New Zealand at 400 million years old.The site is a steep North-facing slope with younger windblown schist loess over this ancient bedrock schist. The vineyard was planted in 2002. Black Rabbit Vineyard 2016 Pinot Noir was fermented with wild yeast and spent 26 days on the skins; around 10 days cold soak, 8 – 9 days in ferment then 7 days post ferment. A philosophy of minimal oak influence is followed, maturation in well-seasoned / aged barrels provides for the wines development. Freedom from oak flavours allows this wine to shine as the most candid expression of Pinot Noir and this site. A total of 80 dozen bottled.

The beginning of spring bloomed dry and cool with low soil moisture coming into the season, November was characterised by much cooler than normal temperatures. The vines got away to a reasonably slow start. December was warm and remarkably settled leading to a compact and successful flowering. February arrived and whilst warm was unusually damp, with much higher than average rainfall. March dried the vineyards out and the season finished with a warm flourish in April. We started harvesting with lower sugars than typical at nice ripe flavours. The harvest was very compact; everything being harvested over a 21-day period.