Novum Quarters Vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noir 2024

Description

Cranberry, Herbal, Oak

"A considered wine with balance and articulate detail of dark cherries, pomegranate and raspberry leaf. Its small portion of whole bunch almost outlines the ripe fruit, adding a stencil of sage and rosemary that brings the fruit into focus. Some savoury new oak, cedar, chewing tobacco and mace round out the finish. The crowning glory is the thistle and underbrush that pulls and stretches the final flavours of the wine. Some Swiss brown mushrooms and cherry pits. Still very fresh and full of energy" Shanteh Wale, Halliday Wine Companion, Dec 2025

"Classically proportioned and intricate pinot noir with very finely detailed cherry and raspberry fruit wrapped in layers of manuka wood smoke, cinnamon, new leather and seed spice. The tannins are ripe and sleek, highlighting the long, mid-weight flavours right across the palate, finishing with a persistent violet note. A little youthful austerity on the finish bringing minerality to the fold" Stephen Wong, The Real Review, Nov 2025

Medium dark ruby with youthful purple hue. The nose shows classic red fruits and florals with a background of spice and warm cedar. Cranberry and sweet cherry notes combine with leather and dark chocolate. The palate has a warm fruit entry; a fine tannin structure, savoury and herb notes and hints of pomegranate juice which together combine to give character. The acidity is balanced and the wine carries to a soft, lingering, nuanced finish. This is a poised, elegant and layered Pinot Noir with dark-red berry fruit, florals and herbs wrapping a fine structured core.

The fruit for this wine was grown in the highly regarded Southern Valleys subregion of Marlborough. The heavy clay loam soils (which bring a richness to the final wine), together with the higher daytime temperatures that occur in the narrow valleys of this area, make it the perfect environment in which to grow high-quality Pinot Noir grapes. The fruit for this wine was harvested exclusively from our flagship Quarters Vineyard in the Brancott Valley. It has all of the hallmarks of a truly great Pinot Noir vineyard: 27-year-old, close-planted vines, producing small bunches of concentrated fruit. This vineyard is managed using a regenerative agriculture mindset, where much emphasis placed on vine and soil health. We encourage the roots to grow deeper into the soil, utilising the minerals and water available from the lower soil horizons. We believe this brings a sense of place to the wines. In other words, after 27 years the fruit should taste like a Quarters Vineyard Pinot Noir, not a Marlborough Pinot Noir.

This was the year when the La Nina weather system that had been active in the Southern Pacific ocean for the previous three years changed to El Nino. In El Nino years, Marlborough experiences longer dry, even hot periods, making these ideal years for grape growing. The 2024 growing season really illustrated this. Initially wet in early spring due to the hangover of La Nina, by late December the longer hotter days had arrived and our fruit ripened slowly gaining flavour whilst retaining a crunchy acidity.

With our Pinot Noir fruit we are driven to make a wine that has great ‘pinosity’. By that we mean a wine that is heavily nuanced, fragment and even pretty. This extends to the way we guide the fruit through the winery. Hand-harvested. Once de-stemmed (15 % whole bunch this year), the grapes were put into open-top fermenters where they sit on skins (about 5 days) prior to starting off a wild yeast fermentation, then pumped over lightly once a day during active ferment. After 35-plus days on skins the wine is pressed using a traditional old basket press, racked and transferred to French oak barriques (20% new oak). The wine is aged in barrel for 12 months with the final wine being blended in February. Bottled March 2025.