2020 Dry River Pinot Noir, Martinborough

Winemaker Wilco describes 2020 as a great vintage. The wine certainly endorses his enthusiasm. It's an intense, powerful and yet surprisingly accessible pinot noir, with layers of cherry, berry, spice and savoury flavours that are indescribably delicious and which promise to get even better with bottle age. A very serious pinot noir. Deserves to be aerated, especially in its youth. 22 APR 2022 Drink 2022–2040

 98 points Bob Campbell MW therealreview.com

Darker notes of oak, oak bark and toasted cumin and coriander spices contrast with lifted fruits of cassis, blood orange, raspberry, and cherries. Then there are the grounding aromatics by way of freshly cut barley straw, nutmeg, and fresh thyme. It reminds a little bit of the 2010 vintage, with its cooler finish that showed interesting contrasts of aromatics.

We have seen a lively and fresh acidity in the 2020 white wines, which also shows in the Pinot Noir. It gives clear direction, drive, and tension - verging on that dissonance mentioned earlier - and shows the lines over the length of the palate, accentuating the fine tannins and leaving little “space” for the depth and concentration of the fruit to show. Don’t be fooled, the fruit is there. The wine just needs a bit of time to show its generosity and warmth, something we all seem to crave at the moment.