Escarpment Martinborough Pinot Noir 2019
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Inspired by the classic wines of Burgundy, this Pinot Noir is a tribute to Martinborough’s unique terroir. It will cellar gracefully for up to 10 years.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
At half the price of Escarpment's single vineyard wine, Kupe, this is stellar value for one of New Zealand's top Pinots. Still young, it needs time in decanter or glass, then opens into a pretty yet powerful wine. Red fruit, tree sap, tar and underlying minerality are wound in raspy tannins. There's length, elegance, intensity and regional character.
-
Wine Spectator
Complex and detailed, this fragrant red offers notes of gunpowder tea, dried lavender and rosemary, with a touch of sassafras to complement the rich, succulent black cherry, blueberry and blackberry flavors. The tannins offer a firm backbone, but never get in the way. Drink now through 2026
-
James Suckling
Aromas of redcurrants, cherries, dried herbs and baking spices. Medium body with lively acidity. Fresh, layered and juicy with a bright core of fruit and a succulent finish.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep black cherry, plum and cola notes appear on the nose of Escarpment's 2019 Pinot Noir, a blend of several different sites around the village of Martinborough. Medium to full-bodied, plush and velvety, with a layered, richly textured finish, it's a solid offering that should drink well over the next decade.
Other Vintages
2018-
Suckling
James
-
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
Escarpment Vineyard was established in 1999 as a joint business venture between Robert & Mem Kirby (of Australia's Village Roadshow) and Larry & Sue McKenna. Collectively, these four directors bring to Escarpment a world of experience, skill and understanding to the nurturing and making of fine, deliciously sublime wine. It goes without saying the impetus behind establishing this vineyard came from the four's deep love for Pinot Noir. Meeting by chance in 1999 through Dr Richard Smith, Larry and Robert quickly hit it off and realised they had more than a love for the grape in common. Serious talk about establishing a definitive New World vineyard began in earnest even then and the 'idea whose time has come' has resulted in one of the most significant vineyard developments in the New Zealand district of Martinborough. Escarpment is accredited with Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand, an industry initiative directed through New Zealand Winegrowers. With a growing trade and consumer demand for environmentally friendly products, it provides an important platform to promote the New Zealand wine industry as a world leader in clean, green wine production.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Part of the Wairarapa region in the southern end of the country’s North Island, Martinborough is a bucolic appellation full of artisan, lifestyle wine producers. Above all else, their goals are to tend vineyards for low yields and create wines of supreme quality. Pinot noir is the main grape variety here, occupying over half of the land under vine.
Comparing topography, climate and soils, the region is nearly identical to Marlborough except that it produces top quality reds on the regular.