2012 Grasshopper Rock Pinot Noir Earnscleugh Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (4) Median Score: 88 points

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  1/8/2018 - Hilzi wrote: 91 Points

  Dark berries, full, new world fruit flavours supported by well integrated wood.

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  6/20/2015 - LindsayM wrote:

  Nothing wrong with the wine , just lack a bit of intensity for me but that said excellent purity and balance
  I'll be interested to try it again in 12 months

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  2/23/2015 - Arrowburn wrote: 50 Points

  Decent pinot noir. Not bad but not "wow" or great. Would not stock in my own cellar but would willingly drink if someone brought a bottle to a party.

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  2/1/2015 - Callum's Corkers Likes this wine: 89 Points

  This wine's style is almost 'old fashioned,' if that's not an odd thing to say about a New Zealand Pinot when Pinot in New Zealand has such a brief and recent 'history.' I mean it's a bit of a 'Fruit Bomb' - don't get me wrong, it is a very good fruit bomb - it just lacks the class and finesse of the very best NZ Pinots like, say, Craggy Range Calvert, or Felton Rd's Cornish Point, wines which have moved on from this style, if they ever 'did' this style anyway, but, to be fair, those top wines are twice the price of the Grasshopper Rock (more on it's value-for-money later). It is huge in the glass, loads of warming alcohol, the side of the glass streaming with 'legs', it has a heavy body, for a Pinot, and very ripe fruit. (In 2012 Otago might have had the best of all NZ's regions in terms of a quality vintage.) This part of the problem: this wine won a Gold Elite at the 2014 Air NZ Wine Show, but, for me, it needs more acidity to balance all that ripe fruit, a taut structure that just ain't there, though there are some nice herbal notes. It is drinking well now, if you like this style, it's so big bold and rich already that you might as well not cellar it; it is well made, but I'm afraid the style just isn't to my liking. I do like the price, though: approx £14.00 British sterling is fantastic value-for-money for a NZ Pinot, you don't get much New World Pinot of this class for much cheaper than that. Final note: it is a better wine on the 2nd day; I decanted it after opening, made these notes, vacu-vined remaining wine in bottle, and that wine tasted again next day was a notch or two above it's previous day's performance.

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