Pinot Noir, Pyramid Valley 2021
Raymond Chan Wine Reviews 96; James Suckling 95; Cameron Douglas MS 95
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Why this wine
North Canterbury limestone and clay give Pinot Noir a savoury frame that little else in New Zealand matches. This is Pyramid Valley's estate blend of four Waipara-area sites, wild-fermented with a quarter whole bunch and bottled unfined and unfiltered.
At a glance
- Grape
- Pinot Noir
- Region
- North Canterbury, New Zealand
- Alcohol
- 13.50%
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Short (3-5 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Poultry & Pork, Cheese
How it tastes
Plum and blue fruits on a deep, brooding nose, lifted by floral and spicy notes. Full-bodied for Pinot Noir, with ripe fruit, a mouth-filling texture and round, plush tannins that give it weight and power, closing savoury and moreish. Pinot Noir 100%.
The producer
Pyramid Valley works the limestone and clay slopes of a high-altitude estate farm at Waikari in North Canterbury. Mike and Claudia Elze Weersing spent fifteen years searching for the site before buying it in 2000; good friends Brian Sheth and Steve Smith took the estate on in 2017, and Huw Kinch has guided it as estate manager and winemaker since 2018. This bottling draws on four North Canterbury vineyards: the northernmost site on the Omihi Saddle and Top Block on Blacks Ave in Waipara, both on Omihi clay; Three Sisters on Mackenzies Rd, planted on Rangitata gravels; and the Porters family vineyard on Domett clay, planted in 2004. The fruit is hand-picked and fermented with natural vineyard yeasts in open-top fermenters with 25% whole bunch, then aged twelve months in French barrels, 20% of them new, and a further six months on light lees in stainless steel before bottling unfined and unfiltered.
Food and drinking
Best at 14-16C, with an hour in a decanter to open the nose. It suits roast duck, slow-cooked lamb shoulder, mushroom risotto and washed-rind cheeses, and should drink well over the next three to five years. Sealed under screwcap. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.