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Buy OnlineWinery notes (2022 Vintage)
"Rockburn Twelve Barrels; the name says it all really. Every year we fill hundreds of French oak barrels with Pinot Noir, and every year I search for those individual barrels that most eloquently speak of site and season. We present the results of that search to you here with a wine that exhibits the attributes I enjoy most about Pinot Noir; subtlety, elegance and personality.
The 2022 Twelve Barrels Gibbston Vineyard Pinot Noir is a single vineyard wine displaying the elegance, power and grace generated by our Gibbston Back Road Vineyard site. Dark and concentrated, the Twelve Barrels displays notes of bramble fruit, truffle and cedar char, with lifted florals on the nose, and seamless texture to the palate. With a fine balance of ripe tannin, natural acidity and lively fruit, this wine truly represents the Gibbston sub-region and its complex nature. Expect to see this youthful wine transform and evolve over a decade or more; please be aware a fine deposit may occur as a result of our minimal handling philosophy."
Rated Outstanding & 95/100 Cameron Douglas MS, September 2023 (2022 Vintage)
"An excellent bouquet filled with scents of place – and that is Gibbston – bright plush red fruit scents of raspberry and cherry, a core of hard stone mineral and gentle contrasting savoury qualities. Dry and textured with velvet tannins and a backbone acidity, a fine wine with complexity with a plush and vibrant mouthfeel, core fruit flavours mirror the bouquet and wood flavours layer in breadth and intrigue. Lengthy and well made with a medium weight and complex intensity. Best drinking from 2025 through 2035."
95/100 David Walker Bell, WineFolio.co.nz, August 2023 (2022 Vintage)
"A dark crimson-purple colour and a bright perfume of cherry, blackberry, orange peel, forest floor, sarsparilla, incense and spring flowers that lifts from the glass. Intense and concentrated, where firm, chiselled tannins in tandem with a compelling acidity sees everything in place. Some notes of spice and savouriness make a mark – nori, mushroom, allspice and cinnamon flit across the palate. This would garner more complexity in time, but has plenty to offer right now."
5 Stars Yvonne Lorkin (2022 Vintage)
"Wow. This is one of those wines that cause you to stop, stare into the distance and contemplate the beauty in nature, the mastery of man and the meaning of life. It also makes you wonder if winemaker Malcolm Rees-Francis isn’t some sort of warlock of wine with the way he’s managed to pick out the 12 best barrels from fruit grown in their Gibbston Back Road site, and crafted a pinot noir that is astoundingly lush and layered and lovely to drink. Scented with exotic spices, roast rhubarb, dark cherry and black guava goodness and softly smoky, savoury, gamey notes merge with black tea tannins and plush, soothing textures to finish. It’s glorious now, but in ten years? I think majestic."
5 Stars & 18.5+/20 (94) Candice Chow, Raymond Chan Wine Reviews (2022 Vintage)
"Light, ruby-red with a light haze (unfiltered), even colour throughout. This has a raw expression, displaying pure cherry, blueberry, plum, sweet spice and a hint of minerals. Medium-light bodied, cherry, blueberry and plum aromas have a pure core, unfolding vanilla, cinnamon and a floral touch. Fine powdery tannins reflecting minerals glide along the palate with lacy acidity; a warming, spiced finish carries a sustained finish. This Gibbston Pinot Noir is delicate and pure on a gentle flow. Match with pork fowl and duck over the next 8+ years. Fruit from Gibbston Back Road Vineyard, clone 6, fermented in 7-tonne fermenter, 8 days cold soaked, fermented over one week to 14% alc, 10 days post-fermentation maceration, aged 14 months in French oak, 50% new oak."
