JULES TAYLOR PINOT NOIR 2023

Jules has been awarded 2021 NZ Winemaker of the Year by Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine

Winery notes (2023 Vintage)
"An evocative perfume of ripe cherry, boysenberries and vanilla, overlays cinnamon spice, with hints of dark chocolate and liquorice. Juicy bright boysenberry fruit, cherry and cinnamon spice spring to the fore on a smooth, polished palate, rounded off by spicy oak and supple tannins, while juicy acidity gives the wine a classy structure and length.

The grapes for this Pinot Noir were grown in Marlborough’s Southern Valleys. The fruit was predominantly hand harvested over a two week period from mid March as optimum ripeness was reached in each block. At the winery, most of the fruit was de-stemmed into small open top fermenters and cold soaked for 5 to 10 days, with a small percentage of whole bunches included to accentuate the spicy perfumed aromas. The juice was then fermented with indigenous yeasts, and plunged by hand to extract a good amount of colour and tannins. It was pressed immediately upon reaching dryness and a portion was transferred to French oak barrels for maturation. After a full malolactic fermentation in spring, the wine was bottled in March of 2024."

Rated Excellent & 94/100 Cameron Douglas MS, November 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"Another well crafted Pinot Noir from Jules and the team, a seamless wine from the bouquet through the palate with aromas and flavours of black cherry and dark plum, some baking spices from oak and fresh fruit spices add complexity. Dry, firm, youthful, a taut squeeze and salivating impact with flavours of dark berries and plums begin to fill the palate. Tannins and acidity add the tautness and palate squeeze circling back to fruit for the finish. Best drinking from 2026 through 2033+."

5 Stars & 94/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, October 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"It's splendidly appealing on the nose, showing sweet cherry, olive, clove and toasted nut characters with a lovely floral overtone. The palate displays juicy fruit intensity, together with supple texture and beautifully pitched tannins, finishing persistent and refined. At its best: now to 2031."

93/100 JamesSuckling.com (2023 Vintage)
"A linear and bright pinot with dark cherry and strawberry character with some flint and graphite undertones. Medium body. Fresh fruit and hints of citrus at the end. Firm tannins too. Complex."

4 Stars Cuisine Pinot Noir Tasting, April 2025 (2023 Vintage)
"Red cherries and plum abound on the nose and also come through onto the palate which is well balanced with lovely complexity. The midpalate is generous and juicy with firm tannins and a bright, taut acid structure."

91/100 Erin Larkin, RobertParker.com, Wine Advocate June 2025 (2023 Vintage)
"The 2023 Pinot Noir is fresh and succulent, with garden mint, clove, strawberry, cherry, mint and aniseed. The tannins are soft and curvaceous and hold the fruit aloft on the palate. Grown in the clay-based soils of the Southern Valleys in Marlborough, the wine is structurally powerful and with some obvious oak showing through the finish."