Wine review - 2007 Delta Vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noir
Recommended Wine of the Week
2007 Delta Vineyards Pinot Noir
Much-awarded winemaker and consultant-at-large Matt Thomson has produced a classy, affordable pinot that ticks all the boxes. Moreish, delicate and very satisfying.
Delta 2007 Pinot Noir
I have two Pinot Noir bugbears. I hate people who see a Pinot Noir with a light colour and write it off before they taste it. Some delicate wines have great power. Worse than that are winemakers who over-extract Pinot Noir to compensate for its light colour. They too often turn a charming wine into a tough and tannic beast. This light but superbly powerful wine is utterly charming. It has beautiful floral and mineral flavours that linger tantalisingly on the palate. Well priced.
Delta Pinot Noir 2007
"Even better than the stellar 06. Extremely fragrant on the nose and packed with squeezed forest berries, oak, clove-spicy too, and some herbal, thyme-like wafts. A long, succulent currant and loganberry core of fruit in the mouth, building at the back. The tannins are firm and crisp and there's an attractive tanginess – in fact there's a touch of Central Otago although this isn't reflected in the reasonable price"
2007 Delta Vineyard Pinot Noir
DELTA VINEYARD Marlborough NZ
Okay we’re a trans-Tasman publication so technically not an import – but this winery is too good not to mention.
“It all started in Italy” says Master of Wine David Gleave. It’s an unlikely place for a start-up New Zealand pinot noir project. Gleave operates an Italian-accented import and distribution business in Britain that also ships many of our iconic names (Cullen, Shaw and Smith, Grosset). New Zealander Matt Thomson had been the vintage winemaker associated with Gleave’s Italian connections in Verona, Friuli and Piedmont. It was Piedmont where they began talking and, over a second bottle of Barolo, Delta was born.
The site is in Marlborough’s higher country on clay soils and is planted exclusively to pinot noir. Several contemporary clones planted in 2001 and 2002 have been selected. The site has a lower flat stretch and a hillside section. A portion of the lower part of the vineyard has been sold, while the hillside section has been retained, prized for its ability to deliver more precise, powerful fruit.
The wines are driven by a philosophy that fuses the potential of the variety, the region, the site and the global fascination with New Zealand pinot. Between Gleave and Thomson, the requisite skills are covered.
The 2007 Delta Vineyard Pinot Noir A$24.00 weighs into the lower priced premium New Zealand pinot territory and delivers exactly the right style of wine for that market. This wine takes the fruit from the lower, flatter section of the vineyard with a portion of hillside grapes blended to style each vintage. Oak isn’t a big slice of the equation, but pinot noir certainly is. “It’s all about respecting the fruit,” Gleave says, and they have definitely got that right. This has pure cherry –scented pinot noir fruit – bright and primary, fragrant and attractive. Ripe cherry flavours, some gentle oak spice and soft, swirling tannins charm from start to finish. It’s a terrific pinot for the money.
2008 International Wine Challenge
DELTA PINOT NOIR 2007 90 POINTS
Quite a high extraction on the nose with dark cherry and plum with a touch of mulberry, the palate soft and supple with a plush finish tinged with white pepper.
Pinot Noir 2007 Review
The Delta Farm, first established in 1848, was purchased in 2000 by four partners. Winemaker Matt Thomson and London-based Master of Wine David Gleave are two of the partners. "The aim is to plant and work only with Pinot Noir, and to make the very best expression possible of Pinot from Marlborough,' explains Matt. With this in mind, Matt looked for a site on the low vigour clay soils to the south of the valley. "In the past, much Pinot was planted beside Sauvignon Blanc on the high vigour loam soils closer to the river," explains Matt, one of the region’s busiest consultants. “This soil is ideal for Sauvignon, but not for Pinot.” His search drew him to the Delta site, where the vineyard was planted, using the best of the new Dijon clones, in 2002 and 2003.
From an excellent vintage, a mixture of machine harvested and hand-picked fruit was destemmed, but not crushed, into 4 tonne open-top fermenters. Open tops were used to reduce the amount of alcoho l in the wine. After a 5 day cold-soak to stabilise the colour, fermentation took place at temperatures of up to 34C, with frequent gentle hand-plunging. After settling to remove solids, the wine is racked to French oak barrels (40% new) and stainless steel tanks for malolactic fermentation and ageing on light yeast
lees.
DELTA
Having won major trophies in NZ with the 2005 Pinot (only Delta’s second vintage) this remains one of the very best, if not the best, under $30 Pinot in NZ. And the 2007 is possibly the finest Delta Pinot yet with its cool, spicy aromas and silky, fruit driven palate. A great wine to drink now and over the next 3-5 years.
