Summerhouse Central Otago Pinot Noir 2024

Summerhouse Central Otago Pinot Noir shows a fragrant, ripe-fruited nose of dark cherry, plum and vanilla bean, layered with savoury nuances of wild game, thyme and toasted almond. The palate is soft and succulent, delivering juicy red and dark fruit alongside gentle spice, all framed by fine, velvet-textured tannins that make the wine immediately drinkable. Grown on Central Otago's glacial-based soils, it reflects the region's hallmark combination of lush fruit and bright acidity. Approachable already, it also has the concentration to develop further over the next few years, and pairs beautifully with duck, venison or mushroom-based dishes.

What the winery says: Grown in Central Otago, New Zealand's southernmost wine region, where glacial-based soils and a dramatic landscape of mountains and lakes shape fruit of natural concentration balanced by fine acidity, the grapes for this pinot noir were hand-harvested in the cool of night to preserve freshness. The fruit was cold-soaked for five days, then fermented in small batches in open-top fermenters, with each ferment plunged three times daily to draw colour and tannin from the skins. After a further five days of maceration, the wine was pressed and aged for 10 months in French oak, 20% of it new.