Pinot Vines Abound In Otago

“Like a new immigrant struggling for acceptance, pinot noir faced dirty looks and derisive whispers when the grape arrived on the southern tip of New Zealand in the mid-198s,” The Globe and Mail’s Beppi Crosariol writes. “John Wallace, the winemaker at Chard Farm, a top estate in Central Otago, recalls one early jab. ‘I overheard someone in a bar saying, ‘Chard Farm is a bloody good waste of merino land.’’ [But] in just a generation, New Zealand has emerged as a new Eden for pinot noir, the signature red grape of Burgundy and the rapture of wine geeks everywhere. In contrast to the moist, maritime climate that prevails in much of New Zealand, Central Otago’s inland slopes and basins sit in the dry rain shadow of the Southern Alps. Clear skies prevail, which ensures full ripening most years, an asset Burgundy can only dream of. ‘Central Otago pinot has fruit to burn,’ Wallace said of the wines’ resulting intensity.”