Pinot Noir, Devil's Staircase, Rockburn 2024
Mix any six bottles and you pay the Any 6+ price at checkout — no code needed.
£10 tracked UK delivery, however many bottles.
We pack and send twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays, by Royal Mail Tracked 48.
Members pay £20.00 — £5.00 less on this bottle. Membership is £120 a year and carries the EDKA Promise. Membership terms
Why this wine
Central Otago Pinot Noir at this price is usually thin or over-extracted, and Rockburn's entry wine is neither. Matured in tank rather than oak, it keeps the region's cherry-and-spice character intact and drinks well from the first glass. It is the easiest way into one of New Zealand's best Pinot addresses.
At a glance
- Grape
- Pinot Noir
- Region
- Central Otago, New Zealand
- Alcohol
- 13.00%
- Body
- Light
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- Low
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Drink now (1-3 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Poultry & Pork, Cheese, Pasta
How it tastes
Red cherry and cranberry to start, with cinnamon warmth and a touch of vanilla, deepening into plum and blueberry on the palate. It is light and smooth in the mouth, the tannins supple and the finish fresh rather than weighty. Pinot Noir 100%.
The producer
Rockburn began in 1991 as Richard Bunton's hobby, a few hectares planted in a Central Otago that was then barely known for wine; Malcolm Rees-Francis arrived as winemaker from Felton Road in 2005 and won both the Elite Gold Medal and the Young Antipodean Winemaker of the Year award. The Devil's Staircase name comes from the winding road that runs from Queenstown to Kingston along the shore of Lake Wakatipu, and the vineyards sit on the 45th parallel between a rainforest-soaked west and a near-desert east, sustainably cultivated and certified by Sustainable Wines of New Zealand. The grapes were fermented with selected yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel and left on their skins for 18 to 25 days, with partial malolactic conversion and no oak at all, the wine matured in tank to keep the fruit pure.
Food and drinking
Serve at 14-16°C. It suits duck breast, roast chicken with thyme, mushroom risotto or a plate of soft washed-rind cheese. Drink over the next three to five years; no decanting needed. Under screwcap. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.