Back in February I attended Pinot Noir 2025 in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was quite a special event. One of the main draws for me was to take a deep dive, tasting lots of Pinot Noir from across New Zealand. I’ve been to previous iterations of these events, going back 15 years, and this time I got the impression that some important strides forward have been made with Pinot Noir in this country. There’s less process evident, and more place. There’s a refreshing stylistic diversity on show, with winegrowers confident to break free of the mainstream style of Pinot Noir. And all the regions on show had compelling wines. You can’t say confidently that any one region is the ‘best’ for Pinot Noir. North Canterbury, Central Otago, Wairarapa and Marlborough are all making some very exciting world-class wines.
Here are my notes on the wines I scored the highest. I’ve only included one wine per producer: some producers would have had multiple entries here otherwise. I tried my best to taste all the wines on show, but time didn’t permit this, so apologies to some producers who I didn’t get round to. Also, a note on scoring. 95 for me is a very high score. I don’t often score wines 96, and I very rarely get to 97. I don’t give wines 100 points as a matter of principle, and I find the lavishing of 100 point scores from some critics is more about them promoting themselves than recognizing perfection in a wine. So the fact that there are 11 96-point scores and a trio of 97s here shows that I think New Zealand is currently making some of the world’s greatest expressions of this grape.
Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Pinot Noir 2021 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is 10/5 clone on 101-14 and SO4 rootstock, picked separately, and this is a barrel selection. Very fine texture with some silky cherry and raspberry fruit with some fine herb detail. Lovely weight here: the mouthfeel is fantastic. 95/100
