Dry River Martinborough Pinot Noir 2020

Description

• Oaked
• Raspberry & cherry
• Lifted fruit & spices
• Unfined & unfiltered

Darker notes of oak, oak bark and toasted cumin and coriander spices contrast with lifted fruits of cassis, blood orange, raspberry, and cherries. Then there are the grounding aromatics by way of freshly cut barley straw, nutmeg, and fresh thyme. It reminds me a little bit of the 2010 vintage, with its cooler finish that showed interesting contrasts of aromatics. The 2020 Pinot Noir is expected show its best after seven to eight years of age. The wine is unfined and unfiltered, so it may develop some deposits over time.

We all have our memories of 2020, and especially of the wine no less. No doubt that the growing season and the start of the vintage were an absolute joy in blissful naivety. But there is an obvious dissonance to the year, as seen in the wine via a melody of intriguing angles held aloft by the wine's smooth confidence.

A lively and fresh acidity in the 2020 white wines, which also shows in the Pinot Noir. It gives clear direction, drive, and tension verging on that dissonance mentioned earlier and shows the lines over the length of the palate, accentuating the fine tannins and leaving little space for the depth and concentration of the fruit to show. Don t be fooled, the fruit is there. The wine just needs a bit of time to show its generosity and warmth, something we all seem to crave at the moment.