2009 Pyramid Valley Vineyards "Calvert" Pinot Noir Central Otago New Zealand
SKU #1106757
92
points
Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar
Good medium-deep red. Knockout nose combines raspberry, smoke, spices and loamy soil tones. Fat, sweet, sexy and rich, but with ripe, harmonious acidity giving shape to the red berry and underbrush flavors. Velvety in the middle and nicely sappy on the long, sweet finish, which features thoroughly ripe, smooth tannins. A liquid confection.
(10/ 2011)
91
points
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Calvert Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir comes from 11 year old vines on schist. It displays a deep ruby-purple color and meaty/gamey aromas over a core of black cherry and black raspberry plus hints of some tar, anise and menthol. Full bodied and concentrated in the mouth, it has chewy tannins, medium-high acid and a long savory finish. Drink it now through 2015+.
(10/ 2011)
K&L Notes
Winery Notes: "A sufficient, but small-berried harvest from this beautiful Bannockburn site. Managed biodynamically by the consistently brilliant team at Felton Road. Soils of schist and quartz sand. Fruit is all hand picked, 75% destemmed, thus 25% whole cluster, transferred by gravity to tank. Ambient soak of 3-5 days, warm indigenous yeast fermentation, 27-28 day cuvaison. Natural, spring malolactic. Fourteen months on original lees in French barriques (25% new); bottled unfined and unfiltered on the winter Solstice, June 2010. Alcohol 14.3%, pH 3.71. Production: 450 cases. Lifted and luscious at the same time, with a broad spectrum of fruit and plant aromatics: from pomegranate through redcurrant jelly and fresh plum to raspberry; beyond juniper berry to crushed thyme to bramble to bark. Also a teriyaki/root beer note like an umami version of the spice we so often see from this site. Broad and enveloping, yet with ripe and bracing and infiltrating tannin. This seemed almost too lush when bottled (remember, we refuse acid additions and work with little or no SO2, preferring to allow the fruit and season fully to express themselves), but has gained real carriage and poise with time. Finishes with a long and lovely interplay between structure and succulence."
