Escarpment Noir Pinot Noir 2022

This cuvée comes from 24 plots in the Martinborough district, at the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island. The grapes come from the Martinborough Terrace, a terroir of alluvial silts over deep gravels, whose drainage and cool climate favour slow ripening and a delicate expression of Pinot Noir.

The grapes are destemmed, then fermented in open-top fermenters with native yeasts. After an average maceration of 20 days, the wine is pressed and aged for 10 months in mostly older French barriques. It is bottled without fining or filtration. The blend brings together 24 plots to combine fruit, structure and finesse.

This wine reveals notes of summer berries, fresh red fruits, ripe cranberry, fresh cherry, strawberry, freshly turned earth, sweet spices, aniseed, dried herbs and cedar. The palate, supple and bright, offers a sleek texture, fresh and vibrant acidity and fine, polished tannins. The savoury, lightly spicy finish keeps a lovely crunchiness.

Introduced in 1819, winegrowing was greatly developed by Jean-Baptiste Pompallier, a French Marist missionary. Sent to Oceania in 1837, he settled there from January 1838 to develop New Zealand's vineyards. The first quality vineyards were established in the Hawke's Bay region in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After production setbacks caused first by phylloxera and then by the First World War, the vineyards began to expand again during the Second World War, when their area doubled. Today New Zealand has 10 major wine regions spread across the North and South Islands, the largest of which is Marlborough. Most of New Zealand's wine regions have a maritime climate. The country's long, narrow shape means that vineyards are never more than 120 km from the coast, and most are much closer than that (with the exception of the semi-continental Central Otago region). A backbone of mountains running down the centre of the country shields most of the main wine regions from the strong westerly winds of the Tasman Sea known as the "Roaring Forties". Because of these winds, there are few wine regions on New Zealand's west coast. The quality and reputation of New Zealand wines are well established. Indeed, the country produces some of the best and most acclaimed Sauvignon Blanc in the world. And it is no coincidence that New Zealand has made Sauvignon Blanc its symbol, just like its sheep, its kiwis and its legendary haka!