2014 Escarpment Pinot Noir Kiwa

Community Tasting Notes (5) Avg Score: 92.8 points

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  1/20/2024 - j5614.person@gmail.com Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Excelllent, opened with air

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  12/25/2020 - HowardNZ Likes this wine:

  Brief notes on 2020 Christmas wines: Brief note. An update on my 2018 note. Under cork (but no hint of TCA I could see). Needs time. Structured, earthy and dense. Espresso and tar. Chunky with prominent, somewhat drying tannins. High quality but there’s a lot of elements - stems, acids, oak and fruit tannins etc - here to begin to integrate and resolve. Open from 2024 at the earliest.

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  4/16/2018 - Neecies wrote:

  At J&A's, blind. Bright but dilute in flavor, no real character or presence. After reading HOWARDNZ's excellent review detailing things absent in our bottle must conclude it's in a dumb phase. Might have gotten travelshocked on the way to the tasting, too. As it was, last place in it's flight.

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  3/17/2018 - HowardNZ Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Larry McKenna and Huw Kinch regard their Kupe as their flagship of Escarpment's single vineyard pinot noirs. Most vintages however (the 2013 is the only exception) I have thought the Kiwa the better of the two. The Kiwa has older vines (at the 2014 vintage, typically 27 years, compared with 15 years) and is on the warmer Martinborough Terraces as compared with cooler Te Muna Road. The Kupe has an earthy, savoury, Burgundy-like quality I have not reliably found in any other NZ pinot. Anyway, the 2014 Kiwa is another excellent wine ... Whole bunch 50% and new French oak 30%. Colour bright garnet with a pale rim. The bouquet simultaneously both grounded and high toned and lifted, with notes of damp peaty soil, dried herbs, bramble, fresh and dried red and black fruit and autumn leaves. There is also a top note of star anise and subtle dark florals. On palate, bone dry and savoury. Silky texture and just above medium weight showing earth, dried herbs, black tea, mushrooms and some salinity. It's drinkable now but the whole bunch element is very prominent. It's quite tannic (presumably fruit tannins as well as oak tannins), but they're good quality tannins. It is very structured and backward for a NZ pinot noir. It ideally needs 5-10 years to integrate.

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  10/9/2016 - chatters wrote:

  Pinotpalooza (Carriageworks, Redfern): Perfumed cherry and black berry, sweet spice, quite polished oak also some stalk notes. The stalky element is more pronounced on the palate , drying tannins but also reasonable acidic balance here. Okay

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