"The wine combines delectable fruit notes with seductive savoury nuances, offering gorgeous complexity and persistency. The bouquet shows spiced cherry, dark plum, smoked wood, mushroom and dried herb aromas, leading to a beautifully rounded palate that is refined and silky. It is wonderfully harmonious and engaging with a lingering silky finish. At its best: now to 2020" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit

"Sweet and reasonably dense, fruit-forward red with a strong plum and berry syrah influence despite it being the minority partner in the blend. An almost juicy wine in a surprisingly accessible style" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Jul 2017

"Light ruby-red colour with some depth and slight garnet hues on the rim.  This has a firm nose with elegantly concentrated aromas of dark-red cherry and berry fruit along with subtle notes of savoury dark herbs unfolding some nutty and slightly resinous oak.  Medium-full bodied, the palate is finely proportioned with moderately taut and concentrated flavours of dark-red cherry and berry fruit, along with herbs, nutty oak and some resinous nuances.  The fruit is underlined by fine-grained tannin extraction lending structure and linearity, and the acidity is subtly poised, providing energy.  The wine flows to a soft cherry and herb flavoured finish.  This is an elegantly proportioned Pinot Noir with taut flavours of cherry and berry fruit with nutty and resinous oak elements on a fine-textured palate.  Match with wild duck and pork dishes over the next 4+ years.  Martinborough fruit, hand-picked and 90% destemmed, leaving whole berries, fermented partially with indigenous yeasts and 10% whole bunches to 13.5%, the wine aged 18 months in approx. 20% new French oak" Raymond Chan, Nov 2018

"I’ve had a long-time love for Martinborough Pinot Noir. For me, it’s as close as New Zealand has come to the great wines and community of the old world. The running gag in our cellar is that these Pinots are so different to anything else New Zealand is making they could have been from another planet . . . Mars perhaps? Then would that would make the winemakers Martians . . . from Martian-borough?" Winemaker

Out of this world spice of star anise, tobacco and sandalwood layer with dark cherry and rose petal on the nose, with an alignment of savoury earthy, herbal notes on the palate.

Rainfall was even lower than the dry 2015 making 2016 the driest growing season Martinborough has has seen in a while. Warmer than average temperatures from January to March coupled with rain at the beginning of April set the region up nicely for vintage. A cool, dry harvest ensured high quality crop arrived at the winery showing ripeness, flavour and balance. Continuing an impressive run of high quality vintages.

Grapes were handpicked and gently destemmed, but left as whole berries. The grapes were kept cold and soaked for around a week before ferment kicked off and yeast took the temperatures north of 33 degrees. The wine was had plunged, then pressed and run to barrel, where it rested until a spring Malo. The wine has matured in barrel for around 18 months before blending.