David Lawrason’s Weekly Wine Pick: an excellent pinot from New Zealand
Churton 2008 Pinot Noir
$30.50 | Marlborough, New Zealand | 89 points
Churton, a small family operation that’s currently converting an impressively situated vineyard to organic viticulture, takes its pinot very seriously. They’ll be represented at the annual New Zealand Wine Fair on Monday, which is a great place to discover the many, many new wines coming out of the country.
The taste: This is a pale pinot with maturing garnet brick colour. There is a note of maturing mushroom, with dried herbs and strawberry jam fruit, and just a touch of pine forest floor. It’s light to medium bodied, a bit dusty and dry, but it has a very interesting savoury character and excellent length.
How to drink it: It is ready to drink now and will stretch nicely through 2014. Give it a light chill, decant and let it breathe for 30 minutes, and try it with poultry, pork tenderloin or even risottos.
It’s pricy in fact very pricy for a wine that is rated only 89 points.
In general though I was quite impressed with wines from small vineyards in New Zeland.Almost every good restaurent seemed to have their own vineyard in the
back of the property.