A perfectly seamless and finely balanced nose, asserting Block 5’s hallmark elegance and refinement. The palate opens subtly, but expands generously in the manner of the great Pinot Noir descriptor of peacock’s tail. Encompassing, harmonious with not a single component jostling for recognition - it’s just mature 30-year-old vines doing their business. The precision of fruit and flavour, combined with silk laden tannins, bring it all to an immensely satisfying finish.
Critic Reviews
98 POINTS
James Suckling
Floral and perfumed aromas of raspberries, rhubarb, rose petals, lead pencil and dark cherries. The palate has seamless tannins with an underlying power and pure acidity, yielding a tightly wound wine that will unravel in years to come. Made from 30-year-old, biodynamically grown vines. Exceptionally balanced and poised.
96 POINTS
Rebecca Gibb MW - Vinous
Layered and intriguing, the 2023 Pinot Noir Block 5 is finely fragranced, offering bags of primary sweet fruit, dried herbs and nutmeg spices. It is concentrated, focused and sinewy, with resolved, drawn-out tannins that give a sense of texture and provide focus, line and length. This is a baby. It will age beautifully.
95 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2023 Block 5 Pinot Noir is muscular and powerful and savory, totally in line with its esteemed reputation up to this point. This 2023 vintage has retained all of the thundering drive that the wine has become famous for, yet, via the fruit, it posits it in a highly focused and precise manner. The fruit feels lighter and more persistent, the tannins deftly handled and overwhelmingly sophisticated. Flavors include sandalwood, mortadella, cherry compote, dried herbs, pink peppercorns and crushed rocks. I love this wine because it tastes like Central Otago, specifically Bannockburn, but every aspect that has been able to be reined in has been, making for an elevated drinking experience. Excellent. Quite likely the best yet. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
Winemakers Notes
20% of the fruit was retained as whole clusters with the remainder carefully de-stemmed directly to the fermenters by gravity without harsh pumping. Long pre-fermentation soaks of 8-10 days prior to fermentation with indigenous yeasts and punched down by hand up to two times per day with a total time on skins of 21-25 days. Pressed off and barrels filled immediately by gravity to the underground barrel cellars. The wine spent 16 months in barrel (25% new French) with two rackings and no fining or filtration, before bottling in late-August 2024.
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Tasting Notes
A perfectly seamless and finely balanced nose, asserting Block 5’s hallmark elegance and refinement. The palate opens subtly, but expands generously in the manner of the great Pinot Noir descriptor of peacock’s tail. Encompassing, harmonious with not a single component jostling for recognition - it’s just mature 30-year-old vines doing their business. The precision of fruit and flavour, combined with silk laden tannins, bring it all to an immensely satisfying finish.