Dog Point, Pinot Noir 2007
Online Catalogue | Sipped and Savoured | Dog Point, Pinot Noir 2007
Tasted June 2009
We've always loved Dog Point's wines at Reserve, and this was re-inforced yet again when we met Ivan and Margaret Sutherland at a tasting recently in London. A really lovely couple - and true pioneers of New Zealand wine. They were initially better known for making wine with another, more famous winery, but Ivan was planting vines in Marlborough as far back as 1981, when he tasted Montana's first efforts (they planted Muller-Thuragau in 1978) and decided they'd chosen the wrong grapes. As a result, when he set up on his own, with friend James Healy, he had (and still has) some of the oldest vines in the country to make his wine from!
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Grapes: 100% Pinot Noir
Region: Wairau valley, Marlborough, New Zealand
Soil Type: The vines, planted in 1981 are grown on free draining, silty clay loam.
Winemaking: Organically grown grapes are fermented using naturally occuring yeasts (so for quite a long time) and spend around 18 months in a mixture of new and old french oak.
ABV: 13.5%
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Tasting Note
Cherry red in colour, this has crunchy redcurrants, raspberry and cherry aromas and a well balanced and tightly structured palate. Blackberry and redcurrants with hints of lavender and a stonym, earthy minerality which reminds of the smell of rain on hot concrete. The finish is strangely coy - you think it's faded away, only for it to come back strongly (perhaps I was having a bit of a strange day?)
Cellaring
This is still young (another possible reason for the peekaboo finish) and although delicious now could be kept for 5, maybe even 10 years.
It you like this, why not try... ooh, which Pinot should I choose? Perhaps Carillon's Saint Aubin for that stony minerality, or maybe Amisfield, Pinot Noir for that fuller bodied Otago style. |
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Online Catalogue | Sipped and Savoured | Dog Point, Pinot Noir 2007
