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."

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."

The Real Review (2021 Vintage)
"For over 15 years, Steve Davies has dedicated himself exclusively to making this one pinot noir from his single organic Bannockburn vineyard. Capturing the intensity of fruit, and the vineyard’s hallmark density, structure and cool herb and mineral energy, the Doctor’s Flat Pinot Noir 2021 is the culmination of Davies’ singular vision, decades of experience, and a dedication to his special site.

Davies’ journey in winemaking more generally and pinot noir specifically, spans continents and iconic wineries. As well as spending eight years in California, including time at Sonoma’s Saintsbury, he’s worked vintages in Burgundy at Domaine Dujac , as well as in Oregon. In his home of New Zealand, his experience includes winemaking at Central Otago’s Carrick and Akarua. These years solidified his understanding of the variety, and fuelled a desire for a project of his own.

After an exhaustive search he found his elevated 3-hectare Doctor’s Flat site, attracted by its deep, ancient glacial gravels. Its schist soil was ground off the Cairnmuir Mountains by glacial ice some 480,000 years ago, making it significantly older than the younger, more alluvial river soils found closer to Lake Dunstan. “These older soils are further down the erosion path and have broken down to release more clay, lime, iron and their other constituent elements,”Davies notes. This geology is key to the wine’s character. “We know soil texture drives wine texture,” explains Davies, “and this vineyard produces pinot noir with density, fine tannin and great texture.”

At around 100m above Lake Dunstan, the elevation of the Doctor’s Flat vineyard also shapes the wine’s distinctive profile. Providing a slightly cooler environment than much of Bannockburn, the Doctor’s Flat pinot retains a thrilling freshness. Davies has also just started to make chardonnay here. Davies’ winemaking philosophy ensures that the very individual voice of the Doctor’s Flat vineyard can be clearly heard in the wine.

Doctor’s Flat Pinot Noir is certainly not a mainstream Central expression. “No fruity little pinots from here,” Davies quips. “As well as the density, there’s a slightly herbal, iron-like note than runs through all the vintages of the wine. It’s a vineyard character. In vertical tastings, it was clear that there is a consistent vineyard signature.” Anecdotal evidence from such vertical tastings, supported by the older bottles I’ve tasted recently from my own cellar, also testify to the ageability of the wine, even from when the vines were far younger. The structure of the 2021 made from mature vines means this will definitely be a keeper. “I hoped to make good wine from a better-than-average site. If my friends, neighbours, and colleagues thought it was good, that would be success enough for me,” Davies reflects with characteristic modesty. 

This award recognises the Doctor’s Flat Pinot Noir 2021 as a singular achievement, a benchmark for Central Otago and New Zealand Pinot Noir that speaks eloquently of its place in the hands of this thoughtful vigneron."