Loveblock Pinot Noir 2014
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Tasting Panel
Kim and Erica Crawford sold their hugely successful eponymous winery and founded this boutique operation. This deep, rich wine is beautifully balanced with tangy, juicy cherry fruit and a lengthy finish. Exemplary New World Pinot Noir.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is intense and muscular without being overdone. Herbal and peppery notes bring nuance to the concentrated flavors of dark plum, mocha and baking spice. The finish is richly tannic but not hard, making it approachable now but capable of aging through 2030.
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Wine Spectator
Stylish, strong toasty notes lend a caramel overtone to the plump and ripe cherry and berry flavors, with vanilla, clove and green tea accents and plenty of throttle on the finish. Drink now through 2027.
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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.”
Home to the globe’s most southerly vineyards, which are cultivated below the 45th parallel, Central Otago is a true one-of-a-kind wine growing region, but not only because of its extreme location.
Central Otago is more dependent on one single variety than any other region in New Zealand—and it isn’t Sauvignon blanc. They don’t even make Sauvignon blanc there.
Pinot Noir claims nearly 75% of the region’s vineyards with Pinot Gris coming in a far second place and Riesling behind it. This is also New Zealand’s only wine region with a continental climate, giving it more diurnal and seasonal temperature shifts than any other.
The subregion of Bannockburn has enjoyed the most success historically but the area’s exceptional growth has moved to the promising regions of Cromwell/Bendigo and Alexandra districts. Central Otago is known for its fruity and full-bodied Pinot noir. With the freedom to experiment here, growers and winemakers are easily exhibiting the area’s great potential.