Villa Maria Reserve Pinot Noir 2019
- Decanter
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Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling -
Tasting
Panel -
Wine
Enthusiast
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The 2019 Villa Maria Reserve Pinot Noir showcases bright floral aromas as well as fresh cherries. On the palate is an inviting mixture of dark chocolate and juicy summer berries with hints of fresh portabello mushrooms. This complex wine shows both purity and richness with soft velvety tannins and toasty oak influence which completes the wine.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Subtle nose of red cherry and cranberry aromas with floral and mineral scents. Youthful on the palate, ripe, well-defined tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A fine effort, the 2019 Reserve Pinot Noir combines mixed black and red cherries with subtle cedar, vanilla and spice shadings. It's medium-bodied, supple and smooth in texture, with a mouthwatering finish. It's not a big, burly offering, as this wine was sometimes in the past, but a pleasantly elegant bottling to drink over the next 5-8 years.
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James Suckling
A fragrant nose of wild strawberries, sour cherries, fresh herbs, forest floor and spice box. It’s medium-bodied with fresh acidity. Round and creamy with plenty of fruit and a succulent finish. Fresh and clean. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
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Tasting Panel
The liquid feels pillow-light yet offers an unctuous coat of cherry preserves, tilled earth, and forest floor. Floral aromas and flavors persist, enhanced by white pepper, cinnamon, red apple, and a hint of mint; with the finish comes a juicy assemblage of sweet earth and tobacco
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a polished, appealing Pinot that opens with lifted aromas of licorice, savory herbs and violets amidst plump plum and berry fruit. The medium-bodied palate threaded gently with savory tannins. This should gain complexity with a few more years in bottle. Drink through 2029.
Other Vintages
2020-
James
Suckling
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
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Wine
Enthusiast
Founded in 1961 from humble beginnings, Villa Maria is a story of pioneering spirit and a desire to champion the best of New Zealand wine.
From the cool climate region of Marlborough, famous for crisp, refreshing Sauvignon Blanc, to the sun-soaked Hawkes Bay producing world-class reds, their wine is a unique expression of their extraordinary land, passion for excellence and bold spirit.
Their portfolio of highly awarded wines is the most stylistically and regionally diverse in New Zealand, setting them apart and consistently delivering a rewarding wine experience.
As the leading winemakers in Marlborough with an unwavering focus on quality and sustainability, Villa Maria wines are distinctive, vibrant, and most importantly, delicious.
Today, Villa Maria is globally recognized and adored for bold, expressive, and exceptional New Zealand wines.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
An icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.