ESCARPMENT Pinot Noir Kupe 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.

KUPE VINEYARD
Kupe Pinot Noir is made entirely from the home block first planted in 1999 and situated on Te Muna Road. The alluvial gravels on the Martinborough terrace provide a distinctive character that sets a benchmark for New Zealand Pinot Noir. An innovative planting in Escarpment’s Te Muna Road vineyard. The site surrounds the Huangarua escarpment relying on a soil type laid down by the river circa 75,000 years ago. The combination of deep alluvial gravels and Martinborough’s warm dry summers creates wines of exceptional power and style. This combined with essentially traditional winemaking techniques secures Kupe as the signature wine for Escarpment’s Pinot Noir endeavours. It is at the vanguard of Pinot Noir style in New Zealand.

MATTHEW DUKES 19.5/20 points
This is the most expansive Kupe I have tasted (and I am lucky to have tasted every release). Last year’s 2021 was a revelation; this year’s 2022 release is a more refined and distinguished creature. Before you read on, particularly if you are new to these wines, it is essential to understand that these are not heavy wines. As you climb the ladder in other portfolios, you often find yourself wading in a gloopier pool. At Escarpment, you don’t taste heavier wines, just those with Ultra HD, as opposed to regular HD! Like all the Pinots in this collection, the energy and impact of these wines are collectively interwoven to create complexity and resonance. 2022 Kupe sings, not like Brian Blessed, José Carreras, Chris Cornell, or any belter. It is Lennon, Elliott Smith, John Grant and other artisans (the female analogy is better, but I wanted to start with Mr Blessed because I felt a Pinot version of him would be hilarious), and the musicality, penetration, and not volume, coupled with flavour memory (not earworm, but smile-inducing toe-tapping remembrance) is what makes this wine so unique. With 42% new oak for 20 months, which I cannot see for the life of me, and sensational length and complexity, this is another super-star release. (Drink 2026 – 2038)

DECANTER 97 points
Tasted by Emma Jenkins MW
Drinking Window 2024 - 2035
Nose is pretty closed but there are intriguing, inviting flashes of earth, graphite, blue florals, damson plum, cherry and wild raspberry. Quite a silky, sweet-fruited attack, then dense and savoury. A definite step up in concentration. The oak has been swallowed up and the tannin structure is more polished and riper than the other wines; no shortage of them either. Focused, long and silky.

THE WINE ADVOCATE Erin Larkin 94+ points
The 2022 Kupe Pinot Noir is mouthfilling and complex, with gravitas and weight without being heavy. The splay of tannin in the mouth starts right at the very front and fans out through the long finish.

It is the most harmonious and intense of the four single-vineyard wines tasted here today, and while I am seriously attracted to the levity and intrigue of the Kiwa, this Kupe is wonderful for different reasons. There’s density, muscle, slow/patient repose and complex nuance in the mouth. It’s a great, distinct wine. Sealed under screw cap. Kupe was picked on March 31. The Abel clone was used. It’s close-planted (this is the last pick from the close-planted vines, which have now been pulled out). It’s on its own roots and planted at a higher density, but it was hit by phylloxera, sadly. The wine was plunged once daily and was on the skins for 30 days. Aging was in 42% new French barriques, with the balance in one- and two-year-old barrels. It was in barrel for 20 months with no racking prior to bottling in December 2023. 14.5% alcohol.

*****

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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