The Better Half Pinot Noir 2021
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James
Suckling
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Warm and welcoming, fragrant black berry and dark cherry notes blend with a subtle touch of spice from French oak barrels.
Enjoy al fresco with a platter of chorizo and cured meats, or in cooler weather pair with a heartier dish like porcini risotto or a slow-braised lamb shanks with cinnamon and star anise.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A pretty nose of red cherries, strawberries and rosemary. Medium-bodied with integrated tannins. Fruity and easy-going on the palate with simple red fruit coming through.
Other Vintages
2015-
Wine
Spectator
When George Elworthy decided to dust off his winemaking hat to create a new range of wines from Marlborough, a friendly rivalry arose. His wife, Jules Taylor, is also a winemaker with her own well established brand and so The Better Half seemed like the perfect tongue in cheek moniker to attach to his new project. George is an accomplished winemaker with more than 18 years of experience in Marlborough. He’s worked with distinguished local and international wine companies, and gained recognition as the founding winemaker at The Crossings in Marlborough’s Awatere Valley. Having been on the scene throughout Marlborough’s rapid transformation as a wine growing region, he has an intimate knowledge of the area and its future potential, something that he’s keen to showcase with The Better Half.
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.”
An icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.