2020 Dog Point, Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand

2020 Dog Point, Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand

Product: 20201241408
 
2020 Dog Point, Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand

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Description

Impressive (but not intrusive) oak-driven aromas of smoky butterscotch and coconut nougat overlay raspberry and cherry stone. More of this follows on the tight but polished palate, which has excellent power and structure to age thanks to grippy tannins and brisk acidity. Needs time, but a class act.
Tina Gellie, Wines for the weekend, Decanter (February 2023)

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Critics reviews

Jancis Robinson MW17+/20

Tasted from a 100-ml mini-tasting packet. 20 km from the coast at 100–200 m. 62% Dijon clones (five different ones), and the rest from three other clones. Certified organic. 70% destemmed, 30% whole bunch. 100% spontaneous fermentation. 18 months in French oak barrels, 30% new. Bottled 4 November 2021. TA 5.1 g/l, pH 3.69.

Darker red, although still transparent than the Tasmanian Stargazer Pinot tasted with it. Extraordinary floral perfume! Heady, even! Goji berry, maraschino cherries, hawthorn-berry tartness with a lovely, gentle stemmy grip from the tannins. The oak spice is more evident and astringent than other wines in this line-up but opened in the glass. Peter McCombie MW says this wine is built to last and needs bottle age.

Drink 2023 - 2030

Jancis Robinson MW, jancisrobinson.com (November 2022)

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James Suckling94/100

This has a complex nose of wild strawberries, spiced cherries, hazelnuts, thyme, nutmeg and bark. Sleek tannins with a creamy texture. Medium body. Silky, long and sophisticated with wonderful depth. From organically grown grapes. 

Even better after 2023

James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (November 2022)

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Decanter93/100
Impressive (but not intrusive) oak-driven aromas of smoky butterscotch and coconut nougat overlay raspberry and cherry stone. More of this follows on the tight but polished palate, which has excellent power and structure to age thanks to grippy tannins and brisk acidity. Needs time, but a class act.
Tina Gellie, Wines for the weekend, Decanter (February 2023) Read more

About this WINE

Dog Point

Dog Point

Dog Point Vineyard combines the considerable winegrowing experience of Ivan Sutherland and James Healy, the former chief viticulturalist and head winemaker at New Zealand's Cloudy Bay.

The name Dog Point dates from the earliest European settlement of Marlborough and the introduction of sheep to the district. These were days of few fences, of boundary riders and "boundary keeping dogs". Shepherds' dogs sometimes became lost or wandered off and eventually bred into a marauding pack which attacked local flocks. Their home was a tussock and scrub covered hill, overlooking the Wairau Plains, designated by the early settlers as Dog Point.

After leaving Cloudy Bay, Ivan Sutherland and James Healy began making wines from Sutherland's own vineyards, which were planted in the 70's and 80's. Additional fruit is sourced from selected vineyard plantings dating back to the late 1970's. The vineyards are partly older plantings on the clay silt of the valley floor where the Brancott valley joins the Wairau valley, and partly newer plantings on three ridges on the west side of the Brancott. The Sauvignon is mostly valley floor, Pinot and Chardonnay mostly on the ridges.

Grapes are all hand-picked, and, with the exception of the stainless steel made sauvignon, all wines are given extended barrel ageing with minimal racking and handling. It's a non-interventionist, natural, hands-off technique that characterizes all their wines.

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Marlborough

Marlborough

New Zealand's answer to Napa Valley, Marlborough is a veritable engine room that in 2006 accounted for 47 percent (10,419 hectares) of the country's vines, and over 60 percent of its production, even though it is home to just 20 percent of the nation’s 530 wineries. Around 76 percent of the vineyards are planted with Sauvignon Blanc.

Located on the north-easterly tip of South Island at a latitude of 41.3 degrees South, the Marlborough flats are protected from the tropical north-westerlies by the Richmond Ranges, separating Marlborough from Nelson. It is similarly protected from the frost-bearing Antarctic south-easterlies racing up the eastern coastline by the Kaikoura Ranges. The region consequently experiences low rainfall, together with high sunshine hours and a significant diurnal shift between day and night temperatures, thus preserving the aromatics.

The Marlborough viticultural zone, now being delineated, actually consists of three sub-regions: the fertile, alluvial soils of the Wairau Valley on the northern side (site of  the original Marlborough settlement in 1880, and subsequently to Montana in 1973) is constantly fed by a subterranean aquifer, resulting in an easy, tutti-frutti style of Sauvignon Blanc best exemplified by Hunters wine.

The Southern Valleys zone on the opposite side of the Valley comprise drier, stonier, poorer soils and clay knolls (such as those of the Brancott Valley), delivering a fuller, more structured, defined, gooseberry and limey Sauvignon Blanc with more bite and poise; Cloudy Bay (who put the region on the world map in 1985), Dog PointIsabel Estate and the Winegrowers of Ara all inhabit this stretch of the Valley.

Lastly there’s the Awatere Valley, which is located across the Kaikouras on ancient black volcanic soils amid a cooler climate, with harvests often running two weeks behind those in the Wairau Valley; the Awatere style of Sauvignon Blanc is peachier and richer than elsewhere, with Vavasour a fine example.

Although most wines are vinified in stainless steel and released within 12 months of the harvest, some enterprising growers are trialling the use of oak barrels, especially when vinifying superior parcels of hand-harvested fruit. Dog Point Section 94 is one such wine.

The region is also home to the country's small sparkling-wine industry, employing the traditional method to vinify Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Some producers have sought to diversify into still Pinot Noir production, whilst using an inappropriate Swiss clone. A glance at what's been happening in Central.Otago and in Martinborough, however, has persuaded those serious producers to plant a greater selection of clones, notably 667, 777, Abel and 115, as well as the common Pommard (UCD 5) and 10/5. The result has been a shift from the classic Marlborough Pinot Noir spicy red fruit with its almost Côte de Beaune character towards a fuller, fleshier, smokier, black cherry Côte de Nuits style.

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Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.

Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.

Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.

The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.

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