Best Pinot Noir – Wine & Spirits Magazine – Winter 2021

In Wine & Spirits’ Top 100 Issue, the buying guide consists of the publication’s Top 100 wines of the year. “If we were looking for some encouragement, in fact, we found some real show-stoppers…Our critics selected these 100 wines as the most memorable we tasted over the past year.” Included in their recommendations are their reviews of the following:

TWO PADDOCKS The Fusilier 2018 – 94 points (Best Pinot Noir)

“Sam Neill acquired this vineyard on Felton Road in Bannockburn in 2013. Close to 14 acres of organically farmed pinot noir, these north-facing hills were planted in 2000 on alluvial silt and sand over schist gravels. The wine, fermented with ambient yeasts and whole clusters (65 percent of the lot), ages in French oak barrels (30 percent new). The stem tannins contribute to the wine’s stature, creating an architecture for the complex layers of fruit to fill. Rose scents and flavors of sour cherries and blackberries give this mouthwatering freshness, as does the flinty reduction, which keeps the wine feeling young. This is age-worthy pinot with plenty of development ahead.”