2023 Black Estate Home Pinot Noir, North Canterbury

Savoury and complex, varietal and new. A lively bouquet with scents of boysenberries and plums, bracken and salty mineral flinty qualities. Spices from wood and earth frame the fruit with a light wild flower lift. Taut and dry with a youthful intensity, firm polished tannins and acidity frame the core of fruit flavours that reflect the bouquet, lengthy and well made with best drinking from 2026 through 2034+.

93 points Cameron Douglas MS camdouglasms.com

Black Estate Home Pinot Noir from North Canterbury is a pure and soulful expression of Pinot grown on limestone-rich soils in the Waipara Valley. The Home vineyard sits on north-facing slopes with clay and active limestone, farmed biodynamically by winemakers Nicholas Brown and Penelope Naish. This site delivers fruit with naturally low yields, intense aromatics, and a distinct sense of place.

The grapes are handpicked, fermented with wild yeasts using a portion of whole bunches, and aged in seasoned French oak barrels for around a year. No fining or filtration allows the wine to express the vineyard in its raw, unpolished beauty.

It opens with lifted aromas of red cherry, rhubarb, dried rose and spice, underscored by hints of earth and crushed herbs. The palate is light to medium bodied but deeply detailed, with fine tannins, bright acidity, and a savoury, mineral finish that reflects the chalky soils beneath the vines. There’s a wild, untamed energy here that makes this wine feel alive in the glass.

Ideal with roast duck, beetroot salad, miso-glazed eggplant or wild mushroom tart. Drink now for its vibrancy or cellar for up to 8 years as the earthy complexity deepens.