It’s the latest article from our Fresh Choice Nelson guest blogger, Neil Hodgson, this week Neil is talking Pinot Noir.
Pinot Noir is one wine variety that when she gets her delicate claws into you she can become your sultry mistress. She can be beautiful, fruity, elegant, beguiling, and most definitely complex and always intriguing.
Pinot Noir is a lighter style red wine compared to deep, rich wines like Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon but it can be packed with beautiful flavours and textures when it is well made, and there are plenty of fantastic examples being made in Nelson and other regions of New Zealand.
Pinot Noir can be a floral, fruity wine and when the really good winemakers weave their magic and use just the right amount of oak fermentation and maturation to add layers of complexity to the flavours that is when the variety gets really interesting.
Flavours can range from red cherry characters to dark cherry and dark berry fruits; floral characters of violets add to the attractiveness, then add winemaking complexity and spiced toasty oak characters come in to play.
If you want to be beguiled by a wine variety then Fresh Choice Nelson has a great range in store, from the easy drinking yet flavoursome 2013 Naked Vines Pinot Noir for just $14.99 to a number of premium wines. I think the smart money is the Brightwater Vineyards 2103 Pinot Noir for $21.99, from the same producer whose 2014 version was the trophy winning Pinot Noir at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards. And some of New Zealand’s very best Pinot Noirs are being made right here in Nelson. Neudorf Vineyards have been a flag bearer for the variety for many years but in recent time Brightwater Vineyards have been awarded nine gold medals and a Best Pinot Noir in Show Trophy.
You don’t have to look very far to find world class pinot noirs, they are right on your doorstep at Fresh Choice Nelson.
