Quartz Reef Bendigo Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2016
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Divine Ruby red in color with intense cherry and berry aromas. Rich on the palate with darkcherry, subtle floral & herbaceous notes. Excellent depth, fine tannins and a long vibrant finish.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
From Rudi Bauer’s capable hands, this reveals the merest whiff of smoke. The palate is corsetted sumptuousness, while the frame is firm, showing lots of backbone. A lovely synthesis of fruit, structure and texture that channels Bendigo power into finesse. The lasting finish resonates with fruit. Biodynamic.
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James Suckling
This is brought forward into lighter strawberry and boysenberry fruits with a gentle leafy edge and some attractive lightly spicy oak. The palate has a finer thread to it in 2016 with very delicate tannins that carry cherry-berry flavors neat and fresh
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The medium to full-bodied 2016 Single Vineyard Pinot Noir is the traditional Quartz Reef bottling, just relabeled to make its origins clearer. It's a ripe, supple, biodynamic Pinot Noir from one of the warmest sites in Central Otago, made by one of the region's Jedi masters. Lovely red berry and cherry fruit picks up savory hints of thyme and cedar, then finishes in a swirl of silky tannins.
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Wine Enthusiast
From the warmer subregion of Bendigo, this wine has an approachable and rather pretty nose of potpourri, plush strawberries, cherries, tomato leaf, vanilla and baking spice, with Quartz Reef's signature hot stones earthiness. The palate is taut and structured with a spine of fine-grained tannins, focused acidity and warm oak notes. This is made to age and barrel influences should settle with time. Drink now–2024.
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Wine Spectator
Smooth and plush, with a velvety background to the pomegranate, cherry and wild thyme notes. Generous and juicy on the finish, where a detail of matcha comes in. Drink now through 2028.
Other Vintages
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Wilfred
Wong
Planted on New Zealand’s largest quartz deposit, Quartz Reef specializes in the creation of exceptional Sparkling Wine and Pinot Noir. Once the focus of a gold strike in the 1860’s this site is now a thriving vineyard. The north-facing vineyard is situated to absorb the heat of the sun and the heat retaining properties of the quartz soils store and reflect this heat increasing the ripening of grapes in the cool Central Otago climate.
Utilizing biodynamic wine growing practices, winemaker Rudi Bauer has a mission to make wines that capture the essence of Central Otago. Rudi earned degrees in viticulture and winemaking in his native Austria before moving to New Zealand in 1985 as assistant wine maker at Mission Estate in Hawkes Bay. Since then, Rudi has been honing his craft in many of New Zealand’s regions as well as Oregon and Burgundy. As one of Rippon Vineyard’s pioneer winemaker’s, Rudi won Central Otago’s first gold medal for Pinot Noir in 1991. And now, as owner/winemaker of Quartz Reef, Rudi is making the best wines of his career, being named 2010 New Zealand Wine Maker of the Year at the NZ Agricultural Society Royal Easter Show as well as the first New Zealander to be nominated for Der Feinschmecker Wine Awards in Germany as International Wine Maker of the Year.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Home to the globe’s most southerly vineyards, which are cultivated below the 45th parallel, Central Otago is a true one-of-a-kind wine growing region, but not only because of its extreme location.
Central Otago is more dependent on one single variety than any other region in New Zealand—and it isn’t Sauvignon blanc. They don’t even make Sauvignon blanc there.
Pinot Noir claims nearly 75% of the region’s vineyards with Pinot Gris coming in a far second place and Riesling behind it. This is also New Zealand’s only wine region with a continental climate, giving it more diurnal and seasonal temperature shifts than any other.
The subregion of Bannockburn has enjoyed the most success historically but the area’s exceptional growth has moved to the promising regions of Cromwell/Bendigo and Alexandra districts. Central Otago is known for its fruity and full-bodied Pinot noir. With the freedom to experiment here, growers and winemakers are easily exhibiting the area’s great potential.