While visiting New Zealand recently to serve as a judge at the International Chardonnay Challenge in Gisborne, I had a few free days on my hands to explore.
One of my stops, quite spontaneously, was at the Villa Maria Winery, which is well known in the United States for its pungent Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. But it wasn’t the Sauvignon that set my mind afire. Nope, it was the absolutely mind-blowing single-vineyard Pinot Noir from the Awatere Valley sub-region of Marlborough.
This bottling, which sadly is not exported to the U.S. (less than 200 cases are produced), is called Taylor’s Pass. No Pinot I’ve tasted from New Zealand has ever come so close to perfection. I tried two vintages and the 2004 was yummy beyond belief.
As it happened, I had driven over the range of mountains that separates the Awatere Valley from the rest of Marlborough the day before. The Awatere is a windswept region that slopes from the foothills of the ranges down to the sea.
Vineyard plantings there are less than 10 years old. The area was only cultivated after the wine business outgrew the rest of Marlborough.
I may not be able to lay my hands on a bottle of this fabulous nectar now that I’m back in the States, but you can bet I’ll be on the lookout for other Marlborough Pinots in the future, particularly if I can trace the vineyard source to the Awatere, a new region with seemingly unlimited potential.
Conventional wisdom holds that the best Kiwi Pinot Noir is made in the Central Otago or Martinborough regions, but it’s now obvious to me there is another contender in the game.
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