Reviews
NZ Winegrower, the industry publication, regards Geoff Kelly as “one of the most perceptive and practical judges of Pinot Noir.” He was invited by NZ Winegrower to select and comment on his Top 10 from the recent Pinot Noir 2010 event held in Wellington.
Bald Hills is proud to have been chosen in the Top 10.
www.GeoffKellyWineReviews.co.nz
“2007 Bald Hills Pinot Noir Single Vineyard (*****) Big pinot noir, ruby, above midway in depth, not as youthful as some 2007s. Bouquet is intensely floral, including dusky rose and boronia aromas, with red grading to black cherry fruit teetering towards plummyness, and some sur-maturité. Palate rescues the wine, being fresh, the flavours dark … yes, but not heavy, with sensitive oaking, and great length on the skin tannins, all lingering attractively. A clue to the volume of bouquet is apparent in the slight suggestion of stalkyness on palate, but the total depth of varietal fruit is remarkable – a lovely wine. The benefits of a part-stalk component in the fermentation are well-apparent here. Cellar 3 – 8 years.” Geoff Kelly Wine Reviews
Curtis Marsh : The Wandering Palate. May 2010 (www.thewanderingpalate.com)
Must-have Wine of the Week Bald Hills Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2007
Bannockburn, Central Otago, New Zealand
I tasted several vintages of the Bald Hills Single Vineyard Pinot Noir recently at the New Zealand Pinot Noir Celebration 2010, held in February and was totally impressed with the wines in terms of consistency, complexity and unbridled power with none of the wines yet to reach optimum drinking, including the coveted 2005.This wine was awarded the Sustainable Wine Trophy and also Best Red Wine Champion Award at the 2007 International Wine Challenge, arguably the world’s most important and certainly largest wine show. It went on to achieve a hat trick with the International Pinot Noir Trophy at the 2007 Decanter World Wine Awards.
This is remarkable achievement for any winery, let alone a pinot noir from the New Zealand!
Bald Hills is located on Cornish Point Road, an old gold miner’s settlement named after the Cornish gold miners who lived there. The vineyard and property is bordered by the Cairnmuir hills and the Kawarau River with panoramic, jaw dropping views towards the Pisa Range and flat-topped terraces above Lowburn (see picture), to which one assumes the name Bald Hills was derived. This is indeed dessert country or at least classified as arid in terms of lack of water and soil in the surrounding hills and ranges – essentially sheep country.
Strategic to successfully ripening the fickle pinot noir grape, the days are radiant and dry here yet nights markedly cold which is the key to achieving excellent natural acidities, coupled with long, dry autumns allowing for the slow ripening of the fruit with vintage well in the month of April.
I shared a bottle of the 2007 Bald Hills Single Vineyard Pinot Noir with friends on the weekend, over a meal, and this is what I have to say…
A striking perfume of violets and dried thyme becomes deeper with rich black cherry, blood plum and blueberry compote; these sweet berry aromas lifted by hints of dark Manuka honey and subtle caramel. As the wine breaths out it reveals an alluring farmyard-chook shed funkiness with brie cheese-lactose nuances – the sort of pongy bits that pinot noir enthusiasts cherish. Indeed, it one of those wines where the melange of fragrances captivates you, continuing to evolve in the glass (preferably a balloon-shaped burgundy glass) to a hedonistic spiciness – like standing over a hot wok inhaling the cooking fumes of Sichuan pepper, star anise, cardamom and hoi sin sauce.
On the palate, there is a saturation of black cherry and black-berry-fruits only more intense with a sweet-sour interplay, like Cantonese dried plums (kaying chi) with an invigorating rush of the sour piquancy of redcurrants and tamarind paste that perfectly modulates the plush and creamy textured mouth-feel. There is overall spicy warmth in the mouth, a sort of pepper-spice glow and vivacious tanginess of bright acidity that infuses the berry flavours and imparts an excellent tension in the wine, framed in soft, earthy tannins.
A gorgeously cuddly and impressively powerful pinot noir that is impeccably balanced – no sense of over-ripeness or over-blown with a perfectly respectable 13.5% alc vol – and seriously over-delivers for the money. Actually, it totally mauled two other pinots’ served alongside – a revered Californian label and respectable burgundy at twice the price. Moreover, it absolutely sang with the spicy dishes at our table – Chinese lacquered duck in red curry and beef rendang.
Sarah Mayo: The Local Nose. 6.6.10 (www.thelocalnose.com)
Bald Hills Wines. A CENTRAL OTAGO WINNER
When Blair Hunt, owner of Bald Hills Wine with his wife Estelle, traveled to London in 2007 to attend the Decanter World Wine Awards dinner he was feeling pretty good about their 2005 Bald Hills Pinot Noir.
Only days before he had learned that it won a regional award in New Zealand for being the Best Pinot Noir. Not a bad result for a young Central Otago winery set up by himself, a PhD chemist from Fiji. At a minimum it was a confidence booster for his trip to London.
At the Decanter dinner he sat in theVictoria and Albert Museum along with a prestigious crowd of winemakers and vineyard owners from around the world, feeling quite honoured to be at the gathering itself. Little did he suspect that second occasion to feel proud would emerge. Without warning, the Bald Hills Pinot Noir 2005 claimed Decanter’s International Pinot Noir trophy for wines over £10. “Wow,” he thought. “We must be doing something kind of special!”
Hold on…the story gets even better. He remained in London to attend the big wine trade show the following week and have the 2005 Pinot Noir compete again in the International Wine Challenge (IWC) – the largest blind tasting challenge to date in 2007.
Just prior to the prestigious dinner at the Grosvenor Hotel in London’s Park Lane, he discovered that the offical water of the event was Fiji water – from his home. How curious he thought. He called his wife Estelle and told her he believed it was an omen – that they would have good luck in that competition too.
His intuition was right. Hours later at the dinner the IWC announced that the 2005 Bald Hills Pinot Noir was the Champion Red wine for 2007. Unbelievable! What a wine hat-trick!
Then much like four wickets in four balls or a Grand Slam Home Run, the odds were simply with him and his wine. Before the evening was over Bald Hills was asked to return to the stage to accept the IWC Planet Earth Sustainability award for sustainable viticulture. Four very prestigious awards in less than two weeks. They really were doing something very special at Bald Hills.
Blair and his son Ross recently visited Singapore and TLN was invited to a Bald Hills wine dinner to taste through their range of wines, including the famed 2005 Pinot Noir. Aside from the recommended Pigeon Rocks Pinot Gris, which was a very easy-going aperitif, the first course of roasted scallop with Foie gras and Curry sauce featured the Bald Hills “Last Light” Riesling 2008 as a pairing.
The wine is named “Last Light” because the parcel of Riesling grapes it’s made from is planted where the last light of the day remains. So, this parcel receives all the heat at the peak temperature before the sun sets in the autumn at 6pm – which lengthens the ripening period for the Riesling grapes well into the autumn. Blair explained that the Last Light Riesling was trying to express all that the land could produce from it’s vineyard aspect and terroir.
Next course brought the “Friends & Lovers” Rose 2008 along with a Millefeuille of Crab Mousse and Beet Root. As Blair says, “the label speaks for itself…” The message is clear: this wine is easily shared and enjoyed by all. With a little residual sugar this rose drinks very fresh with ripe cherry, whiffs of white grapefruit and white peaches – light and lively for sure.
The grand finale was the roasted lamb with Pinot Noir. We were lucky enough to taste the Bald Hills Pinot Noir 2006, and 2007…then the surprise appearance of the famed 2005.
The 2006 Pinot Noir presented a much fruiter nose than the other two along with a generous, medium+ bodied character throughout. The 2007 was an altogether different wine reflecting the much different vintage of that year. Poor fruit-set in the spring started everything off, but in fact led to much more selective grape picking at harvest. This wine was much more concentrated, with dried vine aromas and a fuller-bodied richness.
Still, the 2005 stood out again. With the little bit of age this wine has developed earthy, sous bois secondary aromas behind rich crushed red cherry and tobacco leaf. It still offers loads of fruit concentration, silky tannins and vibrant, deeply textured finish. It was simply delicious.
From a CNN report by Hilary Whiteman
“Renowned New Zealand winemaker, Grant Taylor started working with [the Hunts] before the first grapes were picked. He has his own label and is very selective about to whom he lends his expertise.
“…I have worked with many, many grape growers in 28 years of winemaking. I never try to push my thoughts on them because usually they will cost the grower money, but simply say what I think and let them make the decision’ he says.
“Blair and Estelle have listened, then acted. They have been fine-tuning their viticulture; I have been fine-tuning the wine making, and the vines have been getting older and doing their job better. But underneath it all is a shared philosophy, which is to do everything in the vineyard and winemaking to make the best wine possible. There are no shortcuts aimed at saving money.’ ”
- Hilary Whiteman, CNN
Matt Kramer, Wine Spectator, April 2010
PURSUING THE WILD PINOT
The great wine revelation of our time is the discovery of Pinot Noir. So exclusive was Burgundy’s achievement that, until the 1980s, nobody really thought that what Burgundy did…was achievable anywhere else. Then, over the past 25 years or so, it all changed. Like stars in the evening sky, Pinot Noirs that tasted like Pinot Noir appeared, at first slowly, and then in increasing numbers. What once seemed a unique repository (Burgundy) turned out to be just one of numerous mother lodes. It was all a matter of prospecting.
The newest gold mine is New Zealand’s Central Otago district at the southern end of the South Island….. And how good are these Pinot Noirs? Damn good. I cannot recall a new winegrowing region, let alone one consecrated to a variety as demanding as Pinot Noir, that has vaulted to such a level of accomplishment in so short a time.
- Matt Kramer, Wine Spectator
