WINE OF THE WEEK: 2019 Paddy Borthwick Pinot Noir

More people need to know about, and be drinking Pinot Noir wines from New Zealand, in our opinion. Period. The End.

Sure, you love your Meiomi Pinot Noir….or your Bread and Butter Pinot Noir….or any of the other Pinot Noirs that are well known and well loved by thousands and thousands of wine lovers the world over. And there is nothing wrong with that! You should absolutely drink what you love!

But if you’ve found yourself on this page, then Team Wineitupanotch wants to take the opportunity to tell you that New Zealand also has a lot to offer when it comes to Pinot Noir. Truly, there is more to New Zealand wines than just delicious Sauvignon Blanc, friends!

So, now that you’re here, let’s talk about a red wine based on Pinot Noir that we’ve newly discovered from New Zealand. It not only delivers lovely complexity in the glass but it is also quite representative of terroir expression of New Zealand Pinot Noir.

Keep reading on to learn what you need to know about this wine.

2019 Paddy Borthwick Estate Pinot Noir

What does this wine cost?

Approximately $35 Canadian.

Where does this wine come from?

This wine comes from the Wairarapa region, which is located at the southern tip of the North Island of New Zealand.

The Wairarapa wine region is located about 50 minutes outside of New Zealand’s capital city Wellington. It is a heavily frequented wine region that is actually quite well known locally for its expressive, herbal and zesty, high quality Pinot Noir wines. Some readers may have heard of Martinborough, which is a famous wine sub-region that is nested within the Wairarapa region.

*Image sourced from the New Zealand Winegrowers Association*

Why is this wine unique?

As we’ve noted above, this wine is unique because it is a Pinot Noir from New Zealand, and doubly, because it is from a wine region in New Zealand that many wine lovers might not have heard of and/or do not associate quality Pinot Noir wines with.

Who makes this wine?

This wine is produced by Borthwick Estate located in Gladstone, New Zealand (see map above). The estate is run by Paddy Borthwick. For five generations and over one hundred years, the Borthwick family have built a farming, wine and food legacy and now the current generation are continuing to grow that story.

Amongst other varietals, the estate owns ten hectares of Pinot Noir plantings (8 different clones) on a mixture of grafted and own roots. Vines are planted in differing areas of the vineyard to maximise the array of flavours available for blending during the final stages of wine production.

Click here to learn more about Borthwick Estate.

A few Wine Geek “essential facts” about the wine (feel free to skip this if you don’t care about detailed wine-making information!):

Grape Variety - 100% Pinot Noir

Soils - Mix of stony, free-draining soils and deeper soils with higher clay content

Fermentation - Temperature controlled, stainless steel using indigenous yeasts

Maceration - extended post fermentation maceration

Maturation - 1100% French oak aged for 11 months with a mixture of selected cooperages (30% new)

ABV - 14.8%

Residual Sugar - 3 g/L

Wineitupanotch tasting notes:

This wine is redolent with bright and ripe cherry, pomegranate and plum notes on the fruit side plus red blossom, char, black pepper and leather hide notes too. It is complex and layered and not your typical light fruity Pinot Noir - this has very serious leanings.

You’ll find medium plus acidity here because that’s what you get in New Zealand PN (yay!), smooth and ripe medium tannins and a very long, pure fruit, spicy finish.

Though this wine does have a relatively high level of alcohol, it is not noticeable because the alcohol is so well integrated with the acidity , tannins and flavour intensity of the fruit.

Aging potential:

This wine will age and continue to improve over the next 3-5 years. If you choose to drink it now, it is drinking beautifully, and an added bonus is that the wine is bottled under screw cap so you may drink it slowly over several days and watch it transform and unfold over this time.

Recommendations to Wineitupanotch:

This wine would make the perfect pairing with mature cheeses or chicken satay skewers.

Wineitupanotch Wine Score: 91 points

This wine delivers a very nice balance between purity of fruit and complexity and structure.

FINAL VERDICT:

We would recommend buying and trying this wine to get an idea of how delicious New Zealand Pinot Noir can be . There are obviously countless other good examples and perhaps trying this bottle will send you on a new wine discovery journey!

If you’ve tried this wine already, or decide to pick it up and try it after reading this post, we’d love to hear from you and hear what you think of it! Please do drop us a line.

Until next time, wishing you love, light and of course - good wine!……

Cheers…..XOXO