Escarpment Kupe Pinot Noir 2020

Reviews

Cameron Douglas MS: 97/100. This is a very special wine - complex and alluring scents of ripe cherry and old strawberry, some baked red berry fruits and layers of wood spices with a core of silty fine soil mineral qualities. Dry with an abundance of fine tannins, balancing acid line and complex lengthy finish. As the wine opens up over an hour the flavours and textures develop beautifully. Delicious, compolex and well made. Best drinking from late 2022 through 2030+.

Bob Campbell, MW (The Real Review): 97/100. Flagship wine from the Home Block, first planted in 1999. Seductive pinot noir with a core of sweet, ripe plum and cherry flavours together with floral and spice noted. Deliciously approachable now but with cellaring potential.

James Suckling (JamesSuckling.com): 96/100 & Best New Zealand Wine 2022. Intensely spicy and perfumed with concentrated notes of purple plums, cherry stones, rosemary, neroli, cloves, cigar box and ground coffee. The tannins are firm and tightly-knit, providing a solid frame to the dark fruit. Sensual and distinctive. Try this from 2024.

Tasting Note

A lifted aromatic and gorgeously opulent aroma that entices the Pinot Noir fan. Perfumed red and black fruits show deep red cherry, red currant, strawberry and raspberry confit and ripe plum. It shows lifted spice and game together with floral notes of perfumed spring flowers and underlying dried porcini mushrooms. A firm tannin profile rounds out the opulent fruit profile to combine excellent texture.

Aromas and flavours:

Additional information

Type: red wine

Varietal: Pinot Noir

Winemaking: Near perfect growing conditions led to exceptional fruit that was handled with great care to help retain balance and elegance. 100% Abel clone picked over two days; the fruit was fermented in open top fermenters using indigenous yeast. They were hand plunged once daily for a total vat time of 25 days. After pressing the wine was aged in 35% new French oak barriques for 16 months, creating a wine with ripe flavours and soft tannins. Bottled without fining or filtration, promoting soft mouth feel and balance, and every priority afforded during its elevation, showing all the hallmarks of a grand young Pinot Noir on release, July 2022.

Cellaring potential: 2030+

Alcohol: 14.0% vol

Residual sugar: <1 g/l

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: contains sulfite

Closure: Screwcap

Serving: Serve Pinot Noir at 16 - 18°C, that is slightly cooler than a typical room temperature, to best enjoy the layers of aroma and flavour as the wine slowly warms in the glass. Decanting an hour or so before serving is worthwhile, especially for young and/or more structured wines.

Produced and bottled: Escarpment Winery Ltd., 275 Te Muna Rd., Martinborough, New Zealand

Distributor: Weinkontor Freund GmbH, D- 33829 Borgholzhausen

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