2023 Greywacke Pinot Noir, Marlborough

Beautifully fragrant, this opens with fresh violets and just-picked cherries. Some lavender and rosehip. Boysenberries and oolong tea leaves. Some star anise spice. Fruit is very youthful, tannins graze at the edges of the palate, and acidity glides through. This is well packaged as a whole, slinky, juicy and with just enough savoury turned-earth tones to anchor the oak spice. Some granitic soil and cherry pit to finish. Drink to 2030.

95 points Shanteh Wale for Halliday Wine Companion, April 2026 

Complex, with myriad small berries, dried herb, woodsmoke, cinnamon and some darker notes of dried currants. The oak and tannins are presently dusty and build towards grippiness on the back-palate, needing time to absorb fully into the wine. Give it another year in bottle to meld: there is elegance underneath the youthful shell and some interestingly perfumed fruit waiting to unfold. Drink to 2033.

93 points Stephen Wong for The Real Review, October 2025

Juicy and well made, with aromas of red berries, strawberries, caramel popcorn and sweet spices. Medium-bodied with velvety tannins. Fruit-driven and supple, with a similar finish. Drink now.

91 points Kevin Dacy for James Suckling, October 2025

The 2023 Pinot Noir is stalky, smoky and spiced, with bright acidity and lean fruit. The wine shows loads of tannin in the mouth, finely wrought to be sure but profuse nonetheless. The fruit sits on the black cherry spectrum and moves into blood plum on occasion. This is a lean iteration of this wine here today. Drink to 2033.

90 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, June 2026

The savory 2023 Pinot Noir balances ripeness and tension, juxtaposing sunny, bright Marlborough fruit against nervy acidity. Well-handled tannins coat the mouth in a gentle, sinewy manner. A generous toasty oak influence lingers longer than the fruit, but some time in bottle will likely resolve this. Drink to 2034.

90 points Rebecca Gibb for Vinous, July 2025

Greywacke Pinot Noir from Marlborough is a richly perfumed, textural, and quietly powerful wine that captures the wild beauty of New Zealand’s South Island. Crafted by legendary winemaker Kevin Judd, founding winemaker of Cloudy Bay, Greywacke Pinot is a benchmark for the region—layered and expressive with a perfect balance of fruit purity, savoury complexity, and cool-climate finesse.

The fruit is sourced from low-yielding vineyards in the Southern Valleys subregion of Marlborough, particularly from the Brancott and Omaka Valleys, where clay-rich soils and hillside aspects provide optimal conditions for Pinot Noir. These sites benefit from warm days and cool nights that allow for slow ripening and extended flavour development, producing fruit with vibrant acidity, fine tannins, and intense aromatics.

Kevin Judd takes a hands-off approach in the winery, allowing the vineyards to speak through the wine. Grapes are hand-harvested, cold-soaked, and fermented with indigenous yeasts in open-top fermenters. The wine is matured in French oak barriques (roughly 40 percent new) for about a year, building structure, savoury depth, and silkiness.

In the glass, Greywacke Pinot Noir shows seductive aromas of dark cherry, blackberry, violets, and baking spice, with underlying notes of dried herbs, forest floor, and a touch of smoky oak. The palate is supple and mouthfilling, with ripe red and black fruits, velvety tannins, and a long, seamless finish.

This is a serious and age-worthy Marlborough Pinot that combines lushness with restraint, making it an exceptional match for roast duck, grilled lamb, or mushroom-based dishes.