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Buy OnlineBlack Estate winemaker Nicholas Brown has been awarded 2022 NZ Winemaker of the Year by Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine
The Damsteep Vineyard is located in the north east of Waipara Valley at the foot of the Omihi Saddle in North Canterbury. The combination of sandstone/limestone soils with some clay has given the wine its bright fragrant, floral/violet flavours and a silken texture. There is palate filling succulence balanced with minerality. A very attractive Pinot Noir.
Winery notes (2019 Vintage)
"The Damsteep Vineyard is located in the north east of Waipara Valley at the foot of the Omihi Saddle in North Canterbury. This Pinot Noir is grown on a 5.5 hectare vineyard with 9 different parcels of various north east, north, and north west facing slopes, with an altitude between 140 to 180 meters above sea level. The vines here were planted in 1999 and grow on clay overlying fractured limestone and sandstone soils. Organic and biodynamic farming practices have been used since 2012. The Damsteep Vineyard was fully certified organic with BioGro in March 2017."
Rated Outstanding & 96/100 Cameron Douglas MS, June 2021 (2019 Vintage)
"After several minutes in glass – aromas of mineral soil and berries, savoury and spice with a fine oak, flowers and a sense of place begin to unfurl. On the palate the wine comes alive with flavours of strawberry and red cherry, dark rose and red apple, limestone and clay, red flowers and baking spices of oak. Complex, tense and young with firm chalky textured tannins, medium+ acidity and flavours that linger for minutes. Delicious, but needs cellar time to complete the harmonious links that have begun. Best drinking from late 2022 through 2028+."
Nick Stock, JamesSuckling.com (2019 Vintage)
"This has a very earthy and gently peppery nose with toasted spices and forest wood. Earth and berry notes, too. The palate has a fresh, lithe and juicy feel with intense dark cherries and plenty of spice at the finish. Profound tannin drive here. From certified organically grown grapes. Drink now to 2028.”
Reviews for previous vintages below…
5 Stars & 95/100 Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review, October 2019 (2017 Vintage)
"Richer, riper and slightly more intense than its sister label from the Home vineyard. Plum, dark cherry, red rose petal, with spicy oak and slightly salty-mineral flavours. A firmly-structured wine with a dusting of drying tannins. Impressive wine with potential."
5 Stars Yvonne Lorkin, January 2020 (2017 Vintage)
"Get ready to get swept into a vortex of Chinese herbal tea, hedgerow fruits, seasoned leather and wild cherry characters on the nose and in this very nicely structured, organically grown pinot noir, there is an exotic intensity that rolls through to the palate. It literally rolls. Like a street sweeper truck brushing all the bullshit away from your tastebuds, leaving the path clear for this little lovely to live its best life."
4 ½ Stars Michael Cooper (2017 Vintage)
"Certified organic, the 2017 vintage was estate-grown in the Damsteep Vineyard, planted in 1999 ‘at the top of Waipara Valley’, fermented with indigenous yeasts, matured for a year in seasoned oak barrels, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Full-coloured, with a fragrant, savoury bouquet, it is medium-bodied, with youthful, ripe, plummy, spicy flavours, showing excellent complexity, fine-grained tannins and obvious potential; best drinking 2022+."
