Highlights: Craggy Range Te Muna Road Pinot Noir 2011 Martinborough, New Zealand – tasted 10 years apart
I bought a six-pack of this Kiwi Pinot Noir in 2013 from Majestic Wine for £18 a bottle. I cracked one open, at almost 12 years of age, and was delighted by how it has developed. I’ve included my original note from 2013 below for comparison.
Craggy Range Te Muna Pinot Noir 2011 Martinborough, New Zealand
13.5% alcohol. Highly aromatic with sweet strawberry and red cherry fruit with some savoury mulch and turned earth notes. In the mouth this has sweet cherries, strawberries and hints of iron and blood, showing beautiful balance between the sweet fruit and the more savoury elements. Has a slight saline twist. This has developed beautifully and is now in a great place. 95/100
[Text from 2013]: This was the standout vintage of a recent 10-year vertical tasting of Pinot Noirs from Craggy Range’s Te Muna Road vineyard in Martinborough. It’s not a rich, dense, flashy Pinot, but rather one of refinement and precision. The vines were getting to the stage when they were really beginning to express the vineyard, and not just fruit, in 2011 (the vineyard was first planted in 1999). I think this will age. I tried it again over the last two nights, and I’ve just bagged a six-pack from Majestic Wine, where it’s currently priced very reasonably at £18 a bottle.
Craggy Range Te Muna Road Vineyard Pinot Noir 2011 Martinborough, New Zealand
13.5% alcohol. Supple, elegant and pure with fine red cherry fruit and subtle sappy green notes in the background. Fresh, fragrant and expressive with nicely poised red fruits on the palate underpinned by fine spiciness. Really well balanced and has potential for development. 94/100 (rrp £22.50 Majestic, Forth Wines, Soho Wine Supply)
