Burn Cottage Moonlight Race Pinot Noir 2022
Burn Cottage Moonlight Race Pinot Noir 2022
Product Information:
Burn Cottage Moonlight Race Pinot Noir comes from a trio of estate vineyards, each site contributes unique characteristics to the blend, resulting in a more vibrant expression of Central Otago Pinot Noir. Rich savoury notes meld with red berry and plum, spice and mineral notes. Supple with layers of interest and a wonderful seamless quality through the palate framed by juicy powdery tannins.
Sourced from Burn Cottage Vineyard in Lowburn, and the Sauvage and Sappa Vineyards in Bannockburn. This wine is approachable now and can be expected cellar up to 7 years.
More about Burn Cottage - Husband and wife Marquis Sauvage and Dianne Sauvage were on a return trip from the Mornington Peninsula in Australia and had decided to visit several regions in New Zealand before returning to their home in Chicago. Dianne and Marquis were struck by the extraordinary beauty of Central Otago and became even more impressed after tasting through the region's wines, particularly Felton Road and Gibbston Valley. They decided that they had found the place they were looking for. Burn Cottage Vineyard is a twenty four hectare estate in the foothills of the Pisa range in Central Otago, New Zealand. The Sauvage family have been farming biodynamically from the beginning in 2002, when no one else was doing it. Their wines are extraordinarily textural, stylistically light-footed and perfumed.
Maker:
Valli is the personal vocation of pioneering winemaker Grant Taylor a name that's synonymous with Otago Pinot Noir. He has been crafting wines there since 1993 when there were only 20 ha planted – today there are over 2000. Grant founded Valliin 1998 with the intention to produce single vineyard Pinot Noirs highlighting the different characteristics of Otago’s sub regions. More than 20 years later, Valli is doing just that, producing single-vineyard pinot noirs from Gibbston, Bannockburn, and Bendigo in Central Otago and the Waitaki Valley in North Otago, as well as a dry Pinot Gris from Gibbston and a Riesling from Waitaki. In 2015, established Otago winemaker Jen Parr joined Grant in the winery, where the two aim to create wines with honesty, integrity, and most of all, a sense of place. When you drink a Valli wine, you are enjoying more than just a wine: you are experiencing a place.
Vineyard:
The vineyard benefitted from a favourable season commencing without spring frost concerns, and aside from periods of rain and high wind run in early summer, the season was warm and settled from there. The low rainfall and mild conditions providing a stable and slow even ripening period. Picking progressed steadily with a great window for each block in the settled conditions, and without early autumn frost pressure, leaves remained on the vines and trees into May.
Burn Cottage vineyard has 10 hectares of vines on 24 hectares of land devoted to creating an enclosed and biodynamic farm system. The Highland Cattle provides integrated grazing of pastures and supply manure for integral compost programs. They also keep bees and have planted an olive grove to produce olive oil in the future. At Burn Cottage biodiversity is the corner stone of healthy farming, thus native species of New Zealand plants, bushes and trees have also been planted to restore native habitats. The energetic and crystalline wines the site produces stand as palpable evidence of their success.
Nose - Cherry Blossom, Red Apple Skins, Pink Peppercorn
Supple and spicy, with pink peppercorn, cherry blossom, red apple skins, a hint of blond tobacco and white pepper.
Palate - Silky, Black Cherries, Cocoa-like Tannins
It is all oh-so-Central black cherries, fresh feeling and lifted, a bit of spice to finish. Feels pure, cool and refreshing.
Finish - Garrigue, Orange Peel, Clove Finish
Orange peel, subtle clove and garrigue. Superb, silky, totally satisfying and enlivening.
The 2022 Moonlight Race Pinot Noir is supple and spicy, with pink peppercorn, cherry blossom, red apple skins, a hint of blond tobacco and white pepper. The wine is light in the glass (but vibrant) and the tannins suit it - they are totally fresh and fine - finely milled and like poudre. Superb, silky, totally satisfying and enlivening. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. - Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate, 94 Points.
If you’re looking for a pure and unadulterated Central Otago Pinot that shows class but won’t break the bank, you’ll find it in the 2022 Moonlight Race. It’s suave and comfortable in itself. This is a chilled out, no worries Kiwi Pinot with plenty of class. Supple, concentrated and savoury with fine-grained cocoa-like tannins. It is all oh-so-Central black cherries with orange peel, subtle clove and garrigue. It’s a wine you can happily drink now but has the frame and fruit content to see out the decade. Being impatient, I will struggle to wait that long. - Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous, 91 Points.
The Finer Details
Style - Red Wine
Varietal - Pinot Noir
Country - New Zealand
Region - Central Otago
Vintage - 2022
Bottle Size - 750ml
ABV - 13.5%
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