Two Paddocks Pinot Noir 2023

98 Points (Top Ranked Pinot Noir) Susie & Peter Masters of Wine

“For those rare people who don’t know the name, Two Paddocks is a Pinot Noir specialist in Central Otago with some of the most southerly vineyards in the world. Sure, it makes a bit of Riesling too, but Pinot is the true headlining act – well, alongside proprietor and celebrated actor Sam Neill, that is. (Not forgetting the scene-stealing Saddleback pigs that form part of what is a wider farming estate.) A self-declared Pinot Noir ‘obsessive’, with a family background in the wine trade, Sam told us about an early, formative experience tasting Burgundy with actor James Mason – fast forward to early 1993, when a chance encounter with a wine friend led him to plant his first vineyard in Gibbston. Since the first wine was made in 1997, the estate has grown to four vineyards, all organically farmed, with the sub-regions of Alexandra and Bannockburn joining the party (see notes on the Last Chance, Fusilier and First Paddock below). Although Central Otago initially made its name on the back of intense, structured, often quite dark-fruited and alcoholic Pinot Noirs, these wines prove there’s another side to the region. This Pinot is their ‘flagship’ blend of all four vineyards, from a relatively warm vintage but which finished in cool conditions. Winemaking involved 50% de-stemming, ambient yeast ferments and 11 months in French oak barrels (18% new). When we tasted it initially in the Wines of the Year line-up, it was immediately bright and engaging but with a definite brooding, autumnal, peaty, savoury dimension, insistent tannin, revitalising acidity and suggestive finish that hinted the wine was just getting going. So we left it. Then we came back. Then we opened another bottle and did the same, eventually tasting it up against all the other top Pinots in the lineup (including its sibling single-vineyard wines). And the truth is, it just kept getting more vibrant and winning and complex and rewarding. On a light frame, it delivers one hell of a performance, pulling together so many different threads of the great work being done on this estate. Two Paddocks’ strapline is: ‘In the Fine Wine & Cheering Up Business Since 1993.’ And this has to be the epitome of a cheerful fine wine.”