2023 Craggy Range Aroha Pinot Noir, Martinborough

The 2023 Aroha Pinot Noir is so elegant and fine. Tasted alongside the Te Muna Road Pinot Noir from the 2024 vintage (both wines sourced from the same vineyard), this appears ethereal and delicate, with dried rose petals and caper brine. 2023 might have brought challenges due to the water and the cold temperatures, however none of the struggles are evident in this glass. What a gorgeous wine. It is saline and fresh, detailed and lingering, highly recommended. Drink 2025–2038.

95 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, September 2025

Light, clear ruby. Beguilingly sweet aromas of honeyed toast, vanilla oak and anise-spiced raspberry coulis with wild strawberry notes adding some herbal freshness. Both reticent and charming at the same time, there is quite noticeable oak and grainy, coffee-ish tannins competing with the pure, pretty and delicate fruit profile, resulting in some youthful disjointedness which will need to resolve in bottle. Yet, despite the structure and wood, this possesses an airy, ethereal quality and underlying laciness which will ultimately emerge victorious once everything integrates. Give it another year to settle and watch this perfumed, lighter-weight pinot noir blossom like a night orchid over the coming decade. There’s something just a touch fragile about this which gives pause, but the pedigree and innate depth is clearly on display. Perhaps not for the very long term but this is an intriguing and fascinating wine nonetheless. 2025–2036

95 points Stephen Wong for The Real Review, August 2025

Perfumed and focused aromas of wild strawberries, potpourri, dark cherries and citrus peel. The medium-bodied palate has finely integrated tannins and balanced acidity, giving flavors of red apples, graphite, hibiscus and pureed raspberries. Refined and pure with a savory edge. Drink or hold. 

94 points James Suckling, February 2025

Craggy Range was founded by the Peabody family in 1998 and is one of New Zealand's most admired producers. Ben Tombs took over as Chief Winemaker in 2023, bringing a precision and focus to the wines that has been noted across recent vintages.

Aroha is a parcel selection of the older Pinot vines in the Craggy Range Te Muna vineyard. With conditions shaped by cool nights and high winds, the vines are planted above the river in a narrow band of clay over alluvial rocks. Aroha means love in Te Reo Māori.

The 2023 vintage for this vineyard was small and demanding. Strong winds during flowering reduced yields well below the norm but what remained was concentrated and precise. 21 days on skins with pumpovers, and 14 months in French barrels maturation give the Aroha structural depth and a fine-grained tannin quality to allow it to mature to its full potential.

Deep crimson, the nose is complex and slowly opening — dark cherry, red rose, dried herbs and a savoury thread of fine earth and bark. The palate is taut and precise with firm, velvet tannins, good fruit density and a long, composed finish.

This is a restrained wine that is likely to need a little bit more time in the bottle for its full expression. Keep food preparations on the refined side.

Modest 12.5% alc./vol.