On Giants’ Shoulders Pinot Noir 2016
Hefty stuff, living up to its name. The same fruit goes into Escarpment’s Pahi Pinot Noir. This reminds me of the first whiff you get of the Christmas pudding on fire; that heady, toffeed cherry, fig, orange rind and raisin; that expectation of impending delight. Gary Walsh said it was one of his highlights of a recent trip to Martinborough, too: “slightly earthy and gamey, in a good way, cocoa dipped plums, floral too. Full bodied, layered with tannin, dried herb perfume, and more of that rich tannin pushing it out. Heaps of power, and a feel of ‘minerality’ throughout. Woah. Great expression of Martinborough Pinot Noir here.” Can’t ask for much more, can we?
Profile
Part of our Women in Wine Collection
We are committed to ALWAYS having wines available that are made by women. In an industry that’s still dominated by men, we believe in celebrating the incredible work women are doing. Here’s to our Women in Wine!
Winemakers: Husband and wife team, Braden and Gabrielle Crosby, are winegrowers, gardeners, parents and lovers of wine. Gabrielle formally trained as a photographer, and spent twelve years in marketing roles. After an epiphany when working harvest in Alsace, they both left their jobs to search for the best vineyard they could find back in the Wairarapa.
Reviews
Gary Walsh
“The vineyard is likely best known as the the source of Escarpment’s Pahi Pinot Noir, though the 1988 planted McCreanor vineyard is now in the hands of Gabrielle and Braden Crosby. Bottles are being labelled now and the release of the wine is imminent. Anyway, here’s one of my highlights from a flying visit to Martinborough last month. Slightly earthy and gamey, in a good way, cocoa dipped plums, floral too. Full bodied, layered with tannin, dried herb perfume, and more of that rich tannin pushing it out. Heaps of power, and a feel of ‘minerality’ throughout. Woah. Great expression of Martinborough Pinot Noir here.”
It’s cool, we get it, you want to know absolutely everything about this wine. Well here you go, go nuts.
Specs
- Region
- Martinborough
- Vintage
- 2016
- Cellaring
- 2030
- Preservatives
- Sulphites
- Alcohol by Vol.
- 13.5%
- Closure
- Screwcap
- Bottle Vol
- 750mL
- Blend Info
- 100% Pinot Noir
- Serving Temp.
- 15.0°C
Winemaking
Crafting
Using a mixture of clones, 10/5, Abel, UCD5 and 828, our intention in the vineyard is to produce florally expressive Pinot noir with excellent structure and finesse on the palate. The fruit for the 2016 vintage was hand harvested and hand sorted in the vineyard from 29th March through to 18th April. In the winery, grapes were crushed, with an average 35% whole bunch retained. Minimal additions of sulphur at crush allowed for three to six-day preferment macerations. Fermentation started naturally and was completed at warm temperatures, total cuvaison of 21 – 27 days prior to pressing. Matured for 12 months in 30% new oak, with coopers including Francois Freres, Chassin, Saint Martin and Sylvain. Blended in April 2017, the wine was settled for four months prior to filtration and bottling in August 2017.
Region
Martinborough
Anyone who's ever tried Martinborough pinot noir will shout its praises from the rooftop... at least, anyone who's not a Marlborough diehard. There seems to be a nice rivalry in the pinot stakes between the two regions, with Martinborough producing more structural (some would say "Burgundian") styles, as opposed to Marlborough's fruity flavour fests. If you see one, nab it. Also keep an eye out for the aromatic whites.
The rules are there ain’t no rules, but here are some foods we think will work pretty well with this wine...
Goes with
Duck and shiitake risotto
Ingredients
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 150g fresh shiitake mushrooms
- 350g arborio rice
- 1.2L chicken stock
- 1/4 cup (60ml) Chinese rice wine (shaohsing)
- 2 tbs kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 Chinese barbecued duck, meat roughly chopped
- 1 bunch steamed baby bok choy
Directions
- Preheat oven to 200°C.
- Heat oil in a large, deep frypan over medium heat and cook onion and garlic for 1-2 minutes until softened.
- Add shiitakes and rice, and stir for a further minute.
- Add stock and wine, bring to the boil, then transfer to a large greased baking dish.
- Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Stir in kecap manis, sesame oil and duck, cover and rest for 5 minutes until liquid is absorbed.
- Roughly chop bok choy, stir in and serve.