Community Tasting Notes (31) Avg Score: 90.7 points

  • 12.8% biodynamic. Stored temperature controlled since delivery from Garagiste in 2011. PnP. Medium cloudy red, orange rim. Still fresh tasting. Filled a small flip top glass bottle, put into ref then retasted a few days later. There’s a faint volatile and soy sauce note in the nose, but purity in the fruit is evident, tending more to the red fruited. Good acidity, resolved tannins. Slight blood orange note on the long finish. Very good. Has held up well. Have one more bottle.

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  • Palest garnet, a very fine hazy cloudiness. Sous-bois, some caramel and a slightly sweet element. Just a hint of volatility but this is living on the edge a bit. Not quite as good as the previous bottle as a result. Just about on the right side of the line. Stylistically not unlike the ethereal style of the 10 Ilan Luisants. ***

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  • Cloudy cherry color with a warm orange hue.

    Very floral nose of violets, cherry, moss/forest floor, and pine needles.

    Long and very layered palate, with a peacocks tail of flavor. Black cherry, strawberries and raspberries finish with a distinctly earthy note. Much less shrill than the Angel Flower of the same vintage. Floats on the palate.

    The wine separates a little on the finish with a somewhat alkaline note, which keeps me from a higher score.

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  • Bright, light red fruit, a touch of sous-bois, and dare I say it, just the tiniest whisp of smoke. Fine boned, elegant and lovely. **** The remaining glass or so doesn't really hold in the fridge overnight, taking on a beetroot element.

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  • Almost seven years since my last bottle. Funny, the back label talks about its light, pale color and suggests it'll deepen with time in the cellar. The color is still pretty light and pale though now with amber undertones instead of the bright rosiness it used to have. That said, the wine is in excellent shape and despite its uber-natural techniques it was not a chemistry experiment in a bottle. Though it hasn't deepened in physical color, it has put on a lot of weight to the point where I would even call its palate presence robust. Yet the texture still retains that fine silkiness. Aromatically it has picked up some of the deeper scents common to mature Burgundy, that melange of underbrush and saddle leather. On the palate it is still a very New Zealand style of pinot, uncannily close to Burgundy but with just a bit more sheen. Notwithstanding the tertiary aromatics, it comes across very clean. Some of the flavors are advanced but it does still have that bit of citrus keeping things vibrant. It'll be interesting to see where this is in a couple more years.

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  • Very pleasing. Not at its peak.

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  • Slightly cloudy. Not a great nose, and some ethyl acetate evident. Palate much more enjoyable. Mulchy red fruit, slippery silky tannin, and decent length finish. (91 Very good wine)

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  • cloudy red, delicate, mulch, mushroom, earthen, smoke, strawberries, hit of alcohol. Good

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  • The best New Zealand pinot I've had...just incredible. Preferring burgundies and secondly, Willamettes, this Pyramid Earth Smoke was extremely well made in the style I prefer. Drinking beautifully in 2015. Medium red cherry, balanced acidity and oak, subois, dusty (decanted for 5 hours). Well done Pyramid!

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  • This was...a huge waste of $60. Cloudy with hints of a secondary fermentation going on (small bubbles around the glass/wine interface and slight, slight frizz ant on opening). Earthy, muted cherry, not too sour though, with mushroom hints for sure. I don't get peoples' fascination with Pinot and this sure did nothing to change my mind. Everyone drank it and most said "taste like Pinot" but I did not take that as a good thing, more a statement of fact. When most CT reviewers are saying "not for everyone", "interesting on an intellectual level" or "if you like natural winemaking you'll probably like this" I have learned the hard way to say "no I won't". Unfortunately I bought during one of Rimmerman's emailgasms about "the greatness of natural winemaking" and I have learned not to hit the buy icon on those wines. Too often natural = flawed and you can add this winery to the likes of Frank Cornellison, la Grange, Detorri, Hewitson and others as producers I ignore. Natural my a$$, try spoiled. I often wonder how many of those natural wine people drink diet soda and scarf down packaged foods like hot pockets or frozen burritos without a thought.

    Once again, Mike and Claudia have let me down. I won't be buying more PV any time soon.

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  • Drank during Pinot Noir. Love old wine!

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  • Pale brownish red color to a 1/4 inch clear meniscus.

    Decent amount of funk initially on the nose that morphs into dirt and sweet blue flowers. High toned aromatics at the end.

    Very red fruited with lots of soil, roots, mushrooms and a touch of soy. Despite the pale color there is a real intensity to this wine. Very long and layered finish that goes on and on and ends with quite a soapy finish (high pH?).

    Definitely a weird wine, and not for everyone, but I find this both intellectually and artistically appealing.

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  • If you like natural wines you will probably like this. It had, to me, an unflattering sour and bitter finish. To the point we didn't end up finishing it...

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  • This was not as good as the Angel Flower had a few months back. Similar in a lot of ways, same cherry centre, rose orange colour. Nose is distinct with lots of strawberry, cherry and orange/orange peel. On the lighter side for a pinot, but full of flavour and lots of acidity. A little bitter, pomegranate, orange note on the finish. Overall very good, but very different and not for everyone.

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  • This is notable for its lack of lactic spoilage I found in several of the Weersing's other Pinot bottlings. That being said, this was Burgundy-like, but quite muted. Slightly cloudy, pale brick red despite nearly ideal storage. Earth, herb, tar leather and muted cherry are undersupported by a flaccid lack of acidity. It needs more of everything to justify its grossly overinflated price. I'd skip Puramid Valley based on my multiple-bottling experiences with the winery.

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  • Rotating Dinner Series- Kangaroo Dinner (Frontier, Chicago IL): Nose: Very aromatic and balanced nose with tones of earth, red cherries, rhubarb, raspberries, red florals, and strawberries along with a touch of funk. The tones are complex, but it seems to lack a slight bit of depth.

    Taste: Very silky medium body with medium+ acidity. This is very well balanced with tones of earth, red cherries, rhubarb, raspberries, and some strawberries. There are very good tones, but this is a bit hollow on the mid-palate.

    Overall: This showed a lot of promise and I was told that the vines were very young on this. I would like to see where this estate goes with more time and as the vines become more mature. This was a very individual Pinot Noir and one to watch out for.

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  • Chicago Rotating Dinner Series - August 2013 (the Kangaroo Dinner) (Frontier - Chicago, IL): Clayton commented that this wine was produced by American hippies that are scouting out territory in Canterbury for wine production. This fits into the mold of the type of natural wines I enjoy...in fact, it reminded me a bit of some of Thierry Puzelat's wines from the Loire. Definitely a funky wine with some light cranberry, pomegranate, and fertilizer notes on the nose. Its palate was airy and floral with some of those rustic earthy tones taking shape. Seemed to garner mixed feelings from the guests, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

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  • The color was a light ruby and slightly cloudy at the core, turning orange and finally auburn toward the rim before tapering off to a transparent halo. The nose was ripe with vibrant red and black berry, gorgeous floral notes, herbal tea, hints of cinnamon, and earthy undergrowth. On the palate, it was weightless yet ripe with beautifully balanced acidity and a sweet and sour sensation that dazzled the senses with cranberry, light orange, sun tea, inner florals and a slight (not sweet) note of caramel. The finish left the mouth watering, with a bitter twang of orange and tart berry.

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  • - Purple color with medium forming legs. It's in total harmony with a light/medium body. Satin-Like texture with a long finish - Has matured beautifully. Light, lovely floral bouquet. Cherries and smoke in deep layers. Absolutely elegant and delightful.

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  • Cloudy red color, this has a gorgeous, delicate Pinot nose. The palate is really unique and I'll have to have some more before I really get a handle on it, but there's no mistaking the concentrated fruit and balance.

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  • Much light than expected and not fully clear, this has hidden power. Sous bois, sour cherry, raspberry, soy, a lick of chocolate and much more going on in here, great length, I really want to lay this down and see how it evolves over time

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  • Cloudy in the glass, burgundy in colour, smelling of cherries and musk, took a while to open up, in fact left it in the fridge for 2 days and there was much more purity in the nose. Its quite light in flavor but build in the glass. Good balance of acidity and tannin. Nice

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  • Compelling. Hits a fascinating edge between nouveau and Burg. Singular is the exact word to describe this and I can't really match the descriptors listed by others.

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  • Drank over the course of about 4 hours, and it continually evolved over that relatively brief timespan, emphasizing different elements of its component parts throughout the evening. The nose captures a broad range of aromatics ranging from small red fruits and sweet citrus fruits to wild herbs, underbrush, and face powders. The dominant characteristic however, which I also recall from the '06 version, is an exotic element of rose water (or perhaps Brazilian rosewood?) that is, in my experience, totally unique to this vineyard. Texturally this is lean, ethereal, almost like Pinot vapor, with bright balancing acids that provide lift and succulence while giving the wine some grounding. Ridiculously long finish teasing out more of the herbaceous and floral elements. There is no doubt in my mind that, along with Rhys, Pyramid Valley are crafting the most exciting, singular Pinot Noirs in the new world; I can't wait to see what this vineyard is doing when it reaches full maturity.

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  • An extremely pretty wine, and I think the comparison with my first Earth Smoke (the 2006) indicates the vineyard may really be finding its voice -- this is clearly made of the same stuff but much more composed and put-together, as if the '06 was a somewhat awkward kid. It pours out a pale, rosy color (not exactly cloudy as some have suggested, but not really vibrant either) and has the same citrus aromatics I remember from the '06, a very distinctive scent in a pinot noir. The thing that strikes you right away on the first taste is the sophistication of the texture. While it has a New World gloss to it that gives it a somewhat slick mouthfeel, somehow it still comes across with a gentle silkiness. Then it's all fresh red-fruited (strawberry?) flavors framed by the citric taste and acidic lift. What's especially interesting about it is that even though there's no way to tell where it's going, it's easy to picture several trajectories that could turn it into something intensely characterful. For example, take that bright citric juiciness, let it simmer a decade in the cellar, and maybe the tone deepens and you wind up with some of those steeped orange peel flavors that show up in old Burgundy from time to time.

    I had about a glass left in the bottle and didn't get to it until five days later. The thing about some of these NZ wines that seem glossy and New Worldy when you first open them is that airtime sometimes moderates that characteristic considerably. Sometimes it just takes an hour or two in a decanter, sometimes it takes a few days. (I can't explain why, but the phenomenon seems most pronounced with wines bottled under screwcap, as this one was.) Anyway, that's exactly what happened here with the leftovers, which essentially made it transform into a totally different wine. The primary gloss was totally gone, which revealed a fascinating stony base which had been completely invisible the first day. The citric juiciness was restrained too and the wine showed a darker, cherry-skin fruit character. I can't describe the actual substantive content of the aroma, but whatever it is, it feels appropriate to call it "perfumed." Floral? Not really. But perhaps something like an oil of flowers. You could easily mistake this for Burgundy at this point, but that only gets at part of the story here. The closest comparison I can make taking into account where it started out and where it ended up is that it tastes like Jean-Marie Fourrier made a wine from Calera's Jensen vineyard. It seems likely the next time I taste it it will seem like something else entirely. But there you go.

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  • Great strawberry and rhubarb at the beginning, nice acid in the middle, and delicate smoke and some raw tobacco on the finish. A bit Burgundian but definitely new world.

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  • Thought this was awesome. Cloudy in colour, clearly not filtered. Earthy and cherry notes. Nice weight and depth to the palate while still being recognizably Pinot Noir.

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  • Crimson and garnet in color, more cloudy and particulate than I'd expected even given the Garagiste description.

    Delightful aroma of sour cherry, stems, and minerally peat. Tastes like it smells, with more acidity than I expected but quite nice if unusual.

    My wife really noticed the high alcohol content which another reviewer noted, it hadn't stood out for me.

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  • I thought the 2006 evoked Michel Lafarge. This was seems less overtly Burgundian and more like itself (if that makes any sense). The nose is a dense and delicate mix of chalky soil, red fruits (that come late), orange (blossoms and oil) and a green note that I would have called stems, but may in fact be a phenolic aroma that's about whole fruit and not about whole clusters (learn something new every day!). The wine tastes much like it smells, with sour cherry/currant layered in. It is distinctly linear, taut and pulsing with a tensile energy. It will also challenge your conventional assumptions about Pinot (if you have some of these), it has no overt acidity, but the wine is fresh and enthusiastically youthful -- as if there were (some overt acidity present). Very curious to see what this does over time.

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