2024 Craggy Range Aroha Pinot Noir, Martinborough

Deep ruby with a hint of purple. Concentrated yet defined aromas of black raspberry, cherry and violet with an undercoat of cinnamon oak. There is a strictness here which comes from youth. The palate is densely concentrated and firmly structured but already displays a cornucopia of fruit and spice. Very long with a melting mouthfeel and great intensity, this impressive, modern expression of pinot noir is going to go the distance, richly rewarding those with the willpower to wait. Grand vin. Drink to 2042.

97 points Stephen Wong for The Real Review, July 2026

From the Martinborough region in New Zealand, which makes some of the world’s best Pinot Noir, the fruit here hails from the wonderful Te Muna vineyard, which is now twenty-five years of age. The name, ‘Aroha’ is Maori for love. And it is simply impossible not to love this wine. From the brilliant 2024 vintage, fermentation was with wild yeasts. The team fermented 85% whole clusters in French oak, while the component which was from clone 114 was fermented in a combination of French oak and sandstone amphorae. Maturation was for a further fourteen months. I can’t remember a better example of this wine from any past vintage. A purple/blue hue, the nose offers a wonderful array of aromas, weaving through cherries, truffles, violets, wild raspberries, leaf litter and notes of freshly baked blackberry pie, just emerging from the oven. We are already seeing some early complexity and, no doubt, that will increase enormously over the coming years. The structure is seamless, the balance impeccable, and the concentration beautifully defined. A wine of focus and energy with great length through to satiny tannins on a lingering finish. Stunning stuff and for me the finest Aroha I can recall. A fifteen-year proposition. Drink to 2041.

97 points Ken Gargett for Wine Pilot, July 2026

A pinot noir with a backbone of fine tannins that give it freshness and form. It’s medium-bodied with dried strawberry and raspberry and orange undertones. Firm and silky texture with a tight finish. Drink or hold.

95 points James Suckling, August 2026

Grown on a narrow band of clay over stone in the Te Muna Vineyard, from vines now over 25 years old, this blends two clones picked five days apart — Clone 667, fermented with 85% whole clusters, and Clone 114 from Prestige Block 16, part-fermented in sandstone amphora. Both were hand-picked and wild-fermented, then aged for 14 months in French oak barriques. The perfume opens with lashings of dark berries, cherry conserve, plum, blackberry, boysenberry, stemmy spice, a touch of cacao nib and white chocolate. It’s dark and brooding, but not at the expense of Pinot charm and fragrance. Some time in the glass reveals clove and forest floor, with the fruit unfurling to add vibrancy and fill out the palate. It’s sapid and dense in the mouth, with a coating of flavours mirroring the nose, all wrapped in firm, chalk-dust tannins and fresh acidity. The finish holds bitter cacao-nib tones as it carries to a very long length. This shape shifts in the glass on account of its nervous youth, but once it settles, you’re in for a ride. There’s complexity now, but also the structure, oak influence and fruit power to age in the longer term.

95 points Tom Kline for Wine Pilot, August 2026

Mellow, medium–fuller weight, fine-tuned and fancy-feeling. A pinot noir of inward concentration. Dark cherry, dark plum, cola, panforte, woody spices, faint mintiness, white pepper. Lots of character here, all squished away in a compact, lengthy frame. Plenty of finesse. Drink to 2030.

95 points Mike Bennie for Halliday Wine Companion, March 2026

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 [ed. love in Te Reo Māori] 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.

This is a restrained wine that is likely to need a little bit more time in the bottle for its full expression.