Tasting note
Elegant and intense, with finesse and precision. Spiced and beautifully structured, with energy and lift carrying the generous fruit across the palate. Layers of dark fruit, savoury complexity and subtle spice reveal themselves with time, supported by fine, rolling tannins. Detailed and nuanced, with depth, balance and a long, graceful finish.
Aromas and flavours:
Reviews
Reviews for Quartz Reef Royal Series 'Ostarrichi' Pinot Noir 2023:
Emma Jenkins MW
Decanter
From the very smart 2023 vintage, this is a powerful and refined wine. A complex nose offers plenty to explore - including rosehip, dark bramble, olive and exotic spices - before moving on to the compact, textural palate. Very good density and finesse; the fruit flows beautifully across the palate with impressive build. Firm, savoury tannins, very long with a dry, mineral-rich finish. An absolute baby, and while perfectly drinkable now, it'd be mad not to tuck this away for future pleasure. Drinking Window: 2025-2038.
Erin Larkin
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Royal Series Pinot Noir (Ostarrichi) represents yet another step up in perfume, fruit intensity and tannic structure, with layers of leather, pomegranate, Szechuan peppercorns, bramble and earth. This, like the other 2023s, veritably crackles with energy and poise, showing balance, harmony among all elements and length through the finish. It's very good and hugely impressive. There's unbound power here, as opposed to the more restrained single ferment of the same vintage. Everything good exists in this vintage and has definition.
Additional information
Type: Red wine
Varietal: 100% Pinot Noir
Food match: Serve with wild duck and pork dishes, e.g. confit duck leg with parsnip and quince.
Wine region: Bendigo, Central Otago, New Zealand. Sourced from the vineyard's easternmost block—fondly named the 'Royal Block'—densely planted with up to 8,000 vines per hectare on glacial moraine. Planted in 1998 on a north-facing slope with Waenga fine sandy loam and Letts steepland soils at an elevation of 217–264 metres.
Vintage 2023: The 2022/23 growing season offered variable weather conditions with a warm, sunny summer following a long, slow flowering period. High heat through January and February allowed the Pinot Noir to achieve excellent ripeness and balance prior to harvest on March 30th, resulting in a highly rewarding vintage.
Winemaking: Hand-picked on 30th March. Cold soaked for 4 days before indigenous yeast fermentation kicked in with 15.5% whole bunch. Gentle hand plunging throughout ferment, followed by post-fermentation maceration of 9 days to ensure optimum fruit and tannin balance. Total time on skin: 23 days. Drained directly into selected French oak barriques (100% one year old) where the wine aged for 12 months with wild malolactic fermentation.
Production: Only 800 bottles made.
Cellaring potential: 2032+
Alcohol: 14.0% vol
Total Acidity: 5.7 g/l
Residual sugar: 0 g/l
Bottle size: 0.75l
Notice: contains sulphites
Nutritional Information
| Nutritional Information per 100 ml |
| Energy |
335 kJ (81 kcal) |
| Fat |
0 g |
| of which saturate |
0 g |
| Carbohydrates |
0.7 g |
| of which Sugars |
0 g |
| Protein |
0 g |
| Salt |
0 g |
Ingredients: Raw materials: Grapes, Preservatives: Sulphur dioxide (E 220).
Produced and bottled by: Quartz Reef, PO Box 63, Cromwell, Central Otago 9342, New Zealand
Distributor: vinabonus GmbH, Simmedenweg 40, 34134 Kassel, Germany
Switzerland
