ESCARPMENT Pinot Noir Kiwa Single Vineyard - Martinborough 2022 CARTON x 6 Bottles - PRE-RELEASE

Description

ABOUT ESCARPMENT
Escarpment is a Martinborough estate founded in 1999 by Larry McKenna, whose passion for precise, site driven Pinot Noir established the winery as a standard bearer for New Zealand cool climate expression. After years of independent success McKenna sold the estate to Torbreck in 2019, a move that brought additional investment and distribution while keeping Escarpment’s vineyard focus intact. Head winemaker Tim Bourne now directs vinification and has continued the estate emphasis on terroir clarity, delicate extraction and restrained cellar intervention.

Vineyards lie on the famous Martinborough Terrace gravels and deep alluvial soils that give the wines a distinct combination of ripe fruit intensity and structural tannin. Escarpment’s single vineyard parcels are worked with meticulous canopy management, low yields and selective hand harvesting to capture optimum phenolic ripeness and to preserve natural acidity. Clonal diversity and careful rootstock choice are used to match vine vigour to soil depth and exposure, and vineyard practice is tailored to express subtle differences between blocks.

Winemaking is small batch and parcel oriented. Fermentations are conducted with a mix of whole bunch and destemmed fruit where appropriate, and the team employs gentle extraction techniques to retain aromatic lift while building structure. Some cuvees are bottled without fining or filtration to enhance texture and mouthfeel. Elevage regimes are chosen to support rather than dominate site character, with oak used judiciously to add complexity.

KIWA VINEYARD
Planted on the Martinborough Terrace alluvial gravels, this Single Vineyard Pinot Noir's hallmark is the savoury, earthy undertones combining with beautiful ripe black, red and green fruit flavours which are always expressed in the resulting Pinot Noirs. These characters are consistent from year to year ensuring the Terroir is paramount in the bottle.

THE WINE ADVOCATE Erin Larkin 93+ points
The vineyard for the 2022 Kiwa Pinot Noir has changed since a recent acquisition and change of hands of the original Kiwa block, which is situated in the town of Martinborough. The wine leads with spiced strawberry, cherry, pomegranate molasses, red apple and pink peppercorn. The wine is mineral and spicy, with a spool of finely milled tannin and acid, which feels intimately connected. It’s febrile. There’s a hint of red licorice and orange rind and tobacco through the finish. Texture really is key to the experience here.

While the fruit is red and white, the texture has a grippy, mineral character to it. It’s an intriguing and elevating offset to the fruit profile. This shift in gear midway across the palate makes for complex drinking. Very good. It will be even better in a few years, I’d wager.

13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Kiwa was picked early on March 27, driven by the weather. There was no hang time in 2022, with no picking at leisure. This is mostly clone 115, with the balance Abel clone and clone 943. Made with 43% whole bunch, the wine spent time in 40% new oak, with the balance in two-year-old barrels and older. It spent 27 days on the skins, plunged daily, and then spent 20 months in oak without racking. It was bottled in December 2023

MATTHEW JUKES 18.5/20 points
Kiwa is a particularly aromatic wine, and its efforts are concentrated on lengthening as opposed to broadening the experience. This means it is more of a javelin-shaped wine than the others, and it adds precision and steeliness, as well as a remarkable degree of streamlined intensity by virtue of its inclusion of 43% whole bunches. The vineyard sits on deep alluvial gravels, and it seems these soils add even more tension and fitness to the whole. As always, with Escarpment wines, no expense is spared with the French oak budget, and while the technical notes report 40% new oak is employed, this woodwork lines up in a linear fashion along the entire length of flavour, so at no point do you sense any oakiness whatsoever. This is a pinpoint, accurate balancing act, and I take my hat off to Tim for ensuring that this wine flies straight and true on the palate. (Drink 2025 – 2030)

*****

Terms and Conditions
Offer - Subject to availability
Delivery - 2026
Prices - Include Freight, Duty & GST
Storage - On arrival into Jersey Free Storage until 30th April 2027
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