August 18, 2020 - Opened 30 minutes before drinking, not decanted. Drinking beautifully after 8 years. Still plenty of summer berry fruit on the nose and palate. Rich earthiness, but not over powering. Lovely balance of fruit and maturity. Just perfect now.
October 9, 2016 - Pinotpalooza (Carriageworks, Redfern): Muted cherry and slight spice…savoury, quite closed, nah.
April 2, 2016 - Superb - probably my favourite Pinot in NZ - pity the property has been sold and so no more Craggy Range Calvert. Earthy, mature berries, very smooth.
January 8, 2016 - Superb Central Otago Pinot
December 28, 2015 - I found this pretty good with a grilled Tuna salad nicoise after a 3 hour decant. Nice sweet/savoury balance, tad dry on the finish. A silkier texture in a few more years would improve it but good stuff from what I understand to be a tough year.
November 9, 2015 - Looks dense but tannins, even when given hours to soften, didn't really yield. Wine just became dry with more savoury than ripe fruit flavours. Maybe closed. Plenty of substance and enough acidity but currently little aroma or enjoyement. How and when will this come around? No idea, but I don't have any intention to touch until at least 2020. Judgement reserved, but I'm cautiously optimistic. A very conservative 91pts for now, could easily become 2pts more with time.
October 17, 2015 - glengarry pinot tasting; 10/16/2015-10/18/2015 (glengarry thorndon): sweet fruit and oak, still needs time for tannins to soften, open perhaps 2017
January 6, 2015 - £19.00 from winedirect.co.uk , November 2014. Tasted at genuine room temp, Jan 2015.
I came to this wine having prior knowledge, from published vintage reports, that in 2012 Central Otago in New Zealand had one of the better vintages of all NZ's regions (Marlb and Hawkes Bay had ordinary seasons, comparatively).
The wine didn't disappoint, it is wonderful Pinot, though of course it is way too early to be drinking it (but I have several bottles and wanted to taste the first, to later 'note and track' the remaining). It is complex on the nose in the sense of both herbals and good fruit, is light-med weight body, has gorgeous balancing acidity, is silky smooth and powerful, though is not an overly rich fruit-bomb; indeed, it reminds you of where the v best NZ Pinot is going in terms of class and style, not where it was 10 yrs ago. The acid and the power, length of finish, suggest cellaring for many yrs.
I rate it up there with Felton Rd's Pinots (Calvert and Felton's vineyards are a mere stone's throw apart); as good as, though, crucially, at £19 this Craggy Range Calvert is better value-for-money than any Felton Rd Pinot.
Also, for me, the 2012 Calvert is a better Craggy Pinot than their Te Muna Rd Martinborough (though this is a personal preference, purely in terms of style: they are different sites, are site-specific wines, that is their point, that is intentional). I have seen this wine on wine-searcher.com for more than £19; even so, I urge any Pinot fan to get their mits on as much of it as you can afford, it is worth every penny.