The Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration is celebrating it’s 10th event this year. It’s a great occasion, an opportunity to explore the region and see the latest releases from the every expanding number of wineries here.
Pinot 2014 started last night with an official opening at Rata, before I get to the wine, the goats cheese and honey in choux at Rata are to die for, I can see why they’ve been on the menu since they opened.
Following the official part of the evening, we were hosted by the Mud House team at Botswana Butchery. Doing my bit, in a very small way for Central, there’s one less rabbit, the Bendigo rabbit, bacon and mustard pie was outstanding. The meal at Botswana was very good, great wines and company, a nice way to start.
An early start today and a good thing that was, with the opportunity to taste over 30 producers 2012 Pinot Noir and an older wine of their choice – my picks? There were lots of excellent wines, a few stood out;
Mud House 431 Pinot Noir 2012
Terra Sancta Slapjack Pinot Noir 2011
Wooing Tree Sandstorm Pinot Noir 2009
Aurum Madeleine Pinot Noir 2012
Akarua Pinot Noir 2012
Burn Cottage Pinot Noir 2012
Chard Farm Viper Pinot Noir 2012
Doctors Flat Pinot Noir 2012
Ellero Pinot Noir 2011
Felton Road Calvert Noir 2012
Gibbston Glenlee Pinot Noir 2011
Mt Edward Morrison Pinot Noir 2011
Rippon Pinot Noir 2011
Rockburn Pinot Noir 2012
Quite an extensive list really, but in the context of the number I tried, a small subset of some very smart wines. Following the tasting we headed to Akarua for a stunning lunch, more on that in the next post.