DOCTORS FLAT PINOT NOIR 2021

Overall Champion Red Wine – The Real Review NZ Red Wine of the Year 2025

Doctors Flat Pinot is about Steve Davies’ pursuit of wine true to its origin—wine of terroir. The vines are organically farmed with care and harvested by hand.

Steve Davies left his job as wine maker at Carrick and set about turning his small organically farmed Bannockburn vineyard into one of the region’s best. This release is an absolute stunner, a bottle of absolute deliciousness.

Winery notes (2021 Vintage)
“Planted in 2002, Doctors Flat is a single 3-hectare vineyard in Bannockburn. The schist subsoil was ground off the Cairnmuir Mountains by glacial ice and deposited here about 480,000 years ago. The glacial action and millennia of weathering have generated an abundance of clay and fine silt in the vineyard gravel. We know soil texture drives wine texture and this vineyard produces Pinot Noir with density, fine tannin and great texture.

We farm organically to help grow and sustain soil biology. In turn the soil microlife harvest and transport nutrient and minerals to the vine. It’s this connection between vineyard and vine that gives Doctors Flat Pinot Noir its character and sense of place.

The winemaking is a simple programme of small open tanks, close attention, minimal inputs and a very light hand in the extraction process with only three punch downs. In 2021 20% of the fruit went directly to tank as whole bunches. Fermentation occurred spontaneously and after 21 to 24 days on skins the wine was drained to French oak barrels (22% new). Malolactic was delayed until spring and SO2 not added until late summer. After a full 12 months in barrel the wine was racked to tank for a second winter, then bottled 20 months after harvest.”

​​​​​​​96/100 Emma Jenkins MW, Decanter UK, October 2025 (2023 Vintage)
“The nose is subtle and spicy, with slightly meaty/iodine undertones then dark cherry and damson plum, dried thyme and warm earth notes. The palate flows well, with a good core of fruit, though this isn’t a fruity wine. Dark cocoa, a silky texture, slightly chewy tannins, a good backbone and finesse, and very long. Sits so nicely in the glass, very complex and layered. Super-smart.”​​​​​​​

5 Stars & 95/100 Stephen Wong, The Real Review, April 2025 (2021 Vintage)
“Still reticent on the nose, a quieter, cooler style with very fine chalky tannins and detailed floral, mineral-inflected fruit. Youthfully austere even at this age, this is a slow-burner which will gain more finesse and detail with time in the cellar. No rush with this one.”