2022 Nautilus Estate Southern Valleys Pinot Noir, Marlborough

A wine that initially needs a little coaxing from the glass, but ensure you make the time because this does reward. Made from an aromatic blend of Dijon clones, this opens with wild cherries, rosehip, goji and raspberry leaf. Like most of the pinot noir wine from Nautilus, the bunch work is subtle, deliberate and detailed. Thyme bush and some river mint on the tailwind. Juicy-fruited but with rooibos tea tannins and dried leather, cumin spice and some mace. This is a very fine wine with elegance and class.

95 points Special Value Shanteh Wale Halliday Wine Companion April 2026

Garnet red in colour, this wine has aromas reminding one of dark cherries, cassis, leather, cigar box and spices. The palate is concentrated and elegant with a fine, dense core of tannins and a long savoury finish.

The 2022 season was one of favourable growing conditions for later ripening varieties in Marlborough. Despite significant rains in February, the region enjoyed a long dry spell in the lead up to harvest. Care and attention to detail in vineyard work enabed harvets of fruit of exceptional quality.

To make this wine, fruit from Pinot Noir clones 114, 115, 5, 667 and 777 were hand harvested and de-stemmed without crushing to allow a portion of whole berries in the ferment. A small amount (average 20%) of whole bunch fruit was also included in some ferments. The grapes were fermented with ambient yeast in open top fermenters after a 7-12 day cold soak. Careful cap management using a pneumatic punch down device resulted in extraction of only the soft ripe tannins. After pressing the wine was racked directly to a mixture of new and older French oak Barriques (25% new), where it rested until filtration and bottling in March 2023.