Dog Point Pinot Noir 2020

Accolades

Bob Campbell, MW (The Real Review): 96/100 & Best Marlborough Pinot Noir 2020 (out of 89). Tantalisingly aromatic wine with strong floral / red rose / violet influence. More fruit-focused on the palate with juicy plum, cassis and blackcurrant flavours. Deliciously drinkable wine with cellaring potential. Very seductive.

Cameron Douglas MS: 94/100.  Really impactful and interesting bouquet with aromas of soil and flowers then red berry fruits, a mix of new barrel and older, a sense of place and time. A wine for the cellar with a tautness and youthful power, polished tannins and acidity are contrasted by core cherry and wild red berry fruit flavours, wild strawberry and plum. Oak weaves its way through the palate with power and impact. A wine for the cellar with best drinking from 2024 through 2032+.

James Suckling (JamesSuckling.com): 94/100. This has a complex nose of wild strawberries, spiced cherries, hazelnuts, thyme, nutmeg and bark. Sleek tannins with a creamy texture. Medium body. Silky, long and sophisticated with wonderful depth.... Even better after 2023.

Michael Cooper: 5 stars. The 2020 vintage is full, bright ruby, with a fragrant, savoury bouquet. Mouthfilling and sweet-fruited, it has generous cherry, plum and spice flavours, gently seasoned with nutty oak, and supple tannins. Already delicious, it is a refined, graceful, very harmonious red, likely to be at its best 2025+.

Tasting Note

Dark plum and baking spices are pronounced on this aromatic and alluring Pinot Noir. Heady floral perfume of violets and rose add a complexing dimension. Bright and pure dark berries and plums characteristic of the Southern Valleys subregion are evident. There is an opulent fruit profile with a fine velvet texture from fine boned tannins. The fruit is framed by judicious French oak adding spice and a tightly grained tannin profile.

Aromas and flavours:

Additional information

Type: Red wine

Grape varial: 100% Pinot Noir

Alcohol: 13.5% vol

Food match: Duck and other game birds, red meats, mushroom dishes. Also lamb cutleys with rosmary.

Vineyards: Marlborough home vineyards, Settlement and Yarrum, Southern Valleays, Marlborough, New Zealand. Largely all on hill slopes with clay loams. Vines are 19 years old on average. Some plantings date back to 1983.

Vintage: A warm growing season with very dry conditions between January and April with only 45mm falling (less than 30% of the average). A season which will be remembered for other reasons however, with a global pandemic affecting staffing movements and logistics but one where calm decision making and patience resulted in perfect ripening conditions, and a very rewarding season. One of the best the region has experienced in recent years.

Winemaking: Hand picked and chilled overnight prior to handsorting. 70% destemmed and 30% whole bunches included. Fermented in small stainless open top fermenters with 100% indigenous yeasts over a period of 3 weeks prior to pressing into French oak barrels for eighteen months (30% new).

Residual sugar: <1 g/l

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: contains sulfites

Cellaring potential: 2030+

Closure: Screwcap

Produced and bottled by: Dog Point Vineyards Ltd, PO Box 52, Renwick, Marlborough, New Zealand

Distributor: vinabonus GmbH, Simmedenweg 40, 34134 Kassel, Germany

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