For viticulturists and winemakers, as well as wine lovers, Pinot Noir has a reputation as one of the most difficult varieties to come to terms with. Those growing and making Pinot Noir as a table wine (as opposed to a sparkling wine) are at the high end of the passion scale. Creative and adaptive viticultural management and winemaking are essential for any degree of success.
Pinot Noir seems to fit New Zealand, where the climate has been shown to have a greater influence on wine quality than soils. (From clay soils to free-draining fluvio-glacial gravels and silts, excellent Pinots have been produced.) While Pinot Noir ripens with good flavours and colour in many regions of New Zealand, experience has shown that only a few regions (notably Hawke’s Bay) are able to consistently ripen other red varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon. However, because of its early ripening, it’s best suited to the lower North Island and South Island’s cool, low-rainfall climates, where plantings are concentrated. It can even turn jammy if it ripens too quickly and fails to acquire the desired flavour profile.
Significantly, New Zealand has also obtained a highly sought-after mixture of clones; examples include the “Abel” clone (see below), which was once fiercely guarded and only available in Burgundy. Eventually, however, they were either sold or smuggled into new-world producers like America and New Zealand, where they replaced inferior stocks.
In order to consistently produce fruit of a high calibre that can provide consumers with a viable alternative to Burgundy, New Zealand vignerons have learned the fundamentals of canopy management, ripeness, clonal selection, and the significance of limiting Pinot Noir yields through frequent intra-winery critiques and exchanges as well as trips to Burgundy and the U.S. Over the past 20 years, all of this has occurred at an astounding rate.
Nowadays, pinot is the second most planted grape variety in Marlborough, with a large portion of its production going towards making sparkling wine. Winemakers are faced with a grape that is erratic and requires different care than other varietals like Sauvignon Blanc. These include oak barrels rather than stainless steel, meticulous site selection, management of yields and vine vigour, and careful hand harvesting.
The great wines of Burgundy are being threatened by labels such as ‘Ata Rangi’ and Alana Estate (Martinborough) or Felton Road and Carrick (Central Otago), even though Marlborough is still a work in progress. The Pinot Noirs from Martinborough are typically earthier and more Old World in style, whereas the wines from Central Otago are typically darker, more fruit-driven, and have a longer shelf life. Regional variations in wine styles are further varied by a variety of winemaking techniques, such as partial whole berry fermentation, pre- and post-fermentation maceration, and different methods of extracting tannin, colour, and flavour.
Time is a crucial component in this. Depending on the trellis system selected, pinot noir vines require a minimum of four years to reach a viable production stage and approximately six years to reach maximum yield. Only mature vines can produce truly excellent Pinot Noir; the vine’s trunk must develop heartwood. The flavour components will grow in this area. A significant portion of New Zealand’s plantings are under ten years old, with the majority being under five and a tiny percentage being near twenty-five. Given that there are vineyards from Canterbury to Nelson as well as in colder, higher-altitude locations, it is obvious that the best is yet to come and that no one area will likely control the majority of Pinot Noir production in New Zealand.
