Foundation Wine

2001 Neill Pinot Noir

"New Zealand Flax. 'Karadi' stick fights as kids -- lessons for life."

The wine has an intense sweet black cherry, violet, thyme and chargrilled pepper on the nose. The palate has a rich warm and rounded feel, with blackberry, thyme, peppery mineral and earthy flavours. Finely textured, it has an elegant and seductive finish.

Vintage and Harvest Notes

The season began with a very early spring budburst. (Alex Paddock around the 17th of September and One Paddock Gibbston around the 2nd of October). This was followed by a cool period during fruit set, which had a greater influence on the Gibbston fruitset. A much higher than average rainfall through the early summer period took a turn for the better in mid-January with a welcome resumption of our traditional hot, dry summer. The season finished perfectly, with an Indian Autumn the likes of which we haven't seen for many years.

Picking:

Alex Paddock: 15-17 April
Gibbston Paddock: 30 April - May 10

Winemaking:

We blended our first crop of Pinot Noir grapes from Alex Paddocks with Gibbston grapes to bring elegance and finesse to this Gibbston Pinot. The fruit was selectively hand-picked combining 20% of grapes from Alex Paddock with 80% from Gibbston. Using all natural yeast, Winemaker Dean Shaw allowed the grapes to ferment for 23 to 30 days, hand-plunging the cap three times daily. Peak fermentation temperature reached 33° C. The wine spent 10 months in French oak barrels, 20% of which were new, to allow the flavours and aromas to come into balance with the tannins and bring notes of toast, spice and lightly charred aromas to the wine. After barrel aging, the wine was bottled without fining, using light to medium filtration.

Vineyard: Stephen and Jim Moffitt. Winemaker: Dean Shaw.

Availability: Sold out

Reviews:

Two Paddocks Pinot Noir, £14.75 Seductive cherry, plum and rose-scented wine from the actor Sam Neill's vineyards. (Haynes Hanson & Clark, 020 7259 0102). -- Joanna Simon, 19 October 2003, The (London) Sunday Times, Style Section

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Exciting...I liked the wine because it has what strikes me as true Pinot flavours (no jam, no cough medicine, no beetroot). It's delicate rather than light with only the lightest vegetal note and real grace. To be drunk now rather than cellared, I think - even chilled as a late summer/early spring drink (depending on your hemisphere and local weather). -- Jancis Robinson, Wine of the Week: Two Paddocks Pinot Noir Central Otago, 10 September 2003, JancisRobinson.com

© Copyright 2003, JancisRobinson.com. Posted with the permission of the author.

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After two rather disappointing vintages, actor Sam Neill's Kiwi Pinot Noir found its mark in 2001, delivering a complex, savoury, beguiling red with soft tannins, gamey fruit flavours, sweet oak and a hum of acidity. -- Tim Atkins, Best Cellars -- 2001 Two Paddocks Pinot Noir, Central Otago 7 September 2003, The Observer Magazine

© Copyright 2003, The Guardian Observer . Posted with the permission of the publisher.

[Proprietor's Note: We don't know what Tim could mean by the disappointing previous vintages, but he's spot on about the 2001!]

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Smells alluring, slightly racy and earthy but lush with fruit, and it tastes similar, with a slightly feral wildness laced with cherries and dabs of beetroot, a splash of spice: tasty and bright. Certainly virile, with a warm, almost cuddly tone, but is it sexy? Absolutely, if only for its silky texture, which makes your voice go husky when its mingled with such earthy flavour tones. What happens next is up to you.
PRICE : $42. AVAILABLE: momentarily

-- SEX IN A GLASS, By Keith Stewart, 12 July 2003, The Listener

© Copyright 2003, the New Zealand Listener. Posted with the permission of the publisher.  

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Top Paddock - Two Paddocks Neill Pinot Noir 2001, Central Otago, $38. -- Well coloured, complex/aromatic bouquet of ripe red berry fruits with hints of gamey spice and toasty oak. Elegant structure with rich texture of flavour, fine grain tannins, and impressive length. A top example of Otago's vibrant fruit and freshness of style, it has finesse rather than raw power. I liked it a lot - should make great bottles in two to three years. -- Danny Schuster, 1 August 2003, The Press

© Copyright 2003, The Press. Posted with the permission of the publisher.

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Two Paddocks Pinot Noir 2001 (about $38) from Sam Neill's vineyards at Gibbston and Alexandra, shows just how delicious and charming good Central Otago pinot noir can be with that extra year's bottle age. Sam Neill plans to release his wines when they are ready to drink, according to marketing manager Ruth Elliott. This is powerful and harmonious with layers of flavours - velvety sweet fruit, spicy oak, smoky, gamey, savoury overtones and an attractive, crisp texture. Although it's delicious now, it will develop further over the next year or two. ****1/2 V+ -- Charmain Smith, 9 July 2003, Otago Daily Times

© Copyright 2003, the Otago Daily Times. Posted with the permission of the publisher. 

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Integration, balance and poise are what this wine’s all about. Aromatics are beautifully integrated, more savoury than not, with hints of dried straw and tarragon-like clonal notes, smoke and mushrooms. Rich and velvety, without being sweet or heavy, like good Burgundy it’s very finely structured. Incidentally, this is the first vintage where the grapes actually came from two paddocks, and it definitely over delivers for it. $35 NZD. -- Paul White, 21 June 2003, The Dominion Post

© Copyright 2003, The Dominion Post. Posted with the permission of the publisher.  

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Two Paddocks Neill Pinot Noir 2001 -- Central Otago wine with a bouquet which is fragrant and spicy with suggestions of straw. Silky and seamless on the palate, with cherry and berry flavours light oak and very light tannine. Tasty, easy drinking wine for now and the next few years. -- Graeme Barrow, May 2003, Hawkes Bay Today

© Copyright 2003, Hawkes Bay Today, Posted with the permission of the publisher.

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© Copyright 2003,News of the World. Posted with the permission of the publisher.