Escarpment Pinot Noir 2021 shines in the glass with a deep ruby-red color and a seductive aroma of red berries such as raspberries and cherries. A hint of spices, like cinnamon and cloves, adds complexity to the bouquet. The taste is silky smooth with a refreshing acidity. Flavor notes include juicy wild strawberries and ripe cherries with delicate undertones of smoked oak and vanilla. The finish is long and spicy with a beautiful, mineral-driven complexity.
Escarpment Pinot Noir is a remarkable wine that showcases Pinot Noir at its finest. It pairs perfectly with dishes such as lamb, duck, or chicken. It can also be enjoyed with grilled salmon or mushroom-based dishes.
The grapes for this wine are carefully selected to ensure optimal ripeness and complexity. During vinification, great emphasis is placed on preserving the grape’s natural character. After gentle destemming, the grapes are fermented in open vats with regular stirring to extract color, aromas, and soft tannins. This process helps create a sublime balance between fruit intensity and structure.
95 POINTS
Wine Enthusiast
Reviewed by Christina Pickard
“At half the price of Escarpment’s single vineyard wine, Kupe, this is stellar value for one of New Zealand’s top Pinots. Still young, it needs time in a decanter or glass, then opens into a pretty yet powerful wine. Red fruit, tree sap, tar, and underlying minerality are wound in raspy tannins. There’s length, elegance, intensity, and regional character, plus an ability to age until 2028, at least.”
95 POINTS
New Zealand Wine Rater
“Boasting a powerful, heady bouquet with cassis, crushed black cherry skins, baking spices along with a strong, wild, herbal note, and milk chocolate oak characters. Full-bodied, tasty, powerfully structured wine with rich, mouth-filling tannins but plenty of fruit weight, savory complexity, and a long finish. A classically structured wine that should deliver much drinking pleasure for years to come.”
About Escarpment
Escarpment Winery focuses on producing wines with perfect balance and exquisite complexity that reflect the unique terroir of this special part of Aotearoa.
History
Escarpment is defined as “a long, steep slope, typically at the edge of a plateau,” reflecting the unique landscape of Martinborough, where the vineyard is located. With optimal exposure to the sun’s rays in Wairarapa and ancient alluvial soils, this is a unique terroir with a distinct natural balance, perfect for growing Pinot Noir.
Since 1998, Escarpment Winery has been producing wines in Martinborough from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Gris. Created through the collaboration between winemaker Tim Bourne and viticulturist Rowan Hoskins, both of whom focus on terroir and nature in their work. Their emphasis is on terroir, particularly Martinborough’s vineyards, which are covered in alluvial gravel that helps create wines with impressive structure, complexity, and fruit expression.
New Zealanders have great respect for the land and its history. From the vineyard, there is a view of the Aorangi Ranges, three hills made famous by Kupe, a great Polynesian navigator who, according to Māori legends, discovered New Zealand. Kupe left his three canoes, Nga Waka, on top of the hills, giving rise to the district’s well-known landmark, “Nga Waka-o-Kupe”—three flat-topped hills resembling upturned canoes.
Te Muna Road, Martinborough, means ‘secret’ or ‘special place’ in Māori, reflecting the unique terroir that Escarpment possesses. Much like the great wines of Burgundy, Escarpment names its finest Pinot Noir wines after the vineyards from which the grapes were grown. The Single Vineyard wines—Kupe, Pahi, Te Rehua, and Kiwa—demonstrate the estate’s philosophy of distinctive elegance and complexity.
