Escarpment, The Edge Pinot Noir 2012
Escarpment, The Edge Pinot noir 2012, Martinborough, New Zealand
£13.99
Screwcap, 12.5%
Waitrose
This is a really tasty, pretty much entry level, New Zealand pinot noir, from the bottom of North Island. It’s juicy, with silky texture and a savoury lead pencil edge to dark cherry and blueberry fruit flavours. Smooth, medium bodied and elegantly balanced. Good stuff. Don’t keep this hanging around. Enjoy it now for its suppleness and moody fresh fruits, with it savoury hint that seems to be devloping into a hallmark for Martinborough regionality.
The wine’s lineage is noteworthy. Escarpment owner Larry McKenna was one of the early boys onto the pinot noir scene in Martinborough, spending many years at Martinborough Vineyard, helping to build the repute of both the region and the cultivar, before setting up Escarpment in 1998. The vineyard is 24 hectares of alluvial gravel terraces on the escarpment of the Huangarua river, mainly planted to pinot noir.