Two Paddocks The Last Chance Pinot Noir 2013
-
Wine
Spectator -
Wine &
Spirits -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Concentrated, with firm and juicy black cherry and blackberry flavors that are generous and velvety, exhibiting a range of star anise and black tea details. A fresh loamy earth note lingers on the long, powerful finish. Drink now through 2026.
-
Wine & Spirits
Dean Shaw got his start at Rippon in the 1990s, then worked in Burgundy, Austria and South Africa before returning to Central Otago to join Sam Neill’s project, working with vineyards in Gibbston and Alexandra’s Earnscleugh Valley. Last Chance comes from Alex Paddocks, a seven-acre hillside of schist gravels that Neill’s team planted in 1998, certified organic in 2008. Shaw makes it with whole clusters in the ferment and without added yeast, the stemminess showing up in the tannins, opening them into a powder keg of mineral darkness. Crushed blackberry and blueberry flavors add a hint of sweetness to those tannins, creating a powerful wine with clear potential to develop as it ages.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Last Chance Pinot Noir has a medium ruby-purple color and nose of red currants, black cherries and dark chocolate with hints of menthol, dried herbs and violets. Medium-bodied, it fills the mouth with bramble berry flavors and an elegant, tightly knit structure of satiny tannins and great frshness, finishing long with a herbal lift.
Other Vintages
2020-
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
-
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator -
Wine
Enthusiast - Decanter
-
James
Suckling
-
James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
-
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
-
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
-
Wilfred
Wong -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Enthusiast
Established in 1993 by itinerant actor Sam Neill, initially the sole aim was to share ethereal pinot noir moments with loved ones. Sam is now the only producer to own land in the three main valleys of Central Otago - Gibbston, Bannockburn (Cromwell Basin) and Alexandra. All vineyards are certified organic. Two Paddocks Estate Pinot Noir is an assemblage of the four vineyards and is a barrel selection comprised of the older blocks. Tiny volumes of single vineyard wines, The Proprietor's Reserves, are also produced. The First Paddock Vineyard is in Gibbston, The Fusilier Vineyard is in Bannockburn and The Last Chance and The Red Bank Vineyards are in Alexandra.
Central Otago is the Southern-most viticultural area in the Antipodes--it sits on the 45th Parallel below Tasmania. Two Paddocks aims to produce understated gentle savoury expressions of their extreme Southern cool climate schist rock origins. Two Paddocks vineyards and wines are certified organic and revolve around a holistic sustainable farming model wherebye all waste from the winery is returned to the vineyards and converted to compost, to be fed back on to the land. The over-riding philosophy is to never take out of the soil more than is being given back. This robust soil biomass will create vibrant healthy vines that produce the very best expressions of their Central Otago terroir. All the crew in the vineyard are full time employees of Two Paddocks, except for the height of summer when extra help is required for all the labour intensive work that organic farming practices demand eg. green thinning and hand harvesting.
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.