The Alma Pinot Noir is a superb new addition to Te Mata Estate's premium range. Long established masters of Bordeaux style reds, Te Mata have been growing and making Pinot Noir (for export only) for over twenty years. It is only now with some serious vine age and the necessary winemaking experience that they have felt they could release a small parcel of this premium Hawkes Bay Pinot Noir.
Winery notes (2022 Vintage)
"Alma celebrates Dr James Thomson, a hero of the 1854 Battle of the Alma during the Crimean War and forefather to Te Mata Estate’s Buck family. Knowing the vanquished enemy soldiers had already contracted cholera, Dr Thomson volunteered to tend to their wounds, saving the lives of over four hundred, and sacrificing his own in the process. The medal he was awarded for this selfless act of valour appears on the label of Alma Pinot Noir.
Dark garnet with a purple edge, Alma Pinot Noir ’22 is a fine wine of both dimension and texture. Intense floral and spice aromas of carnations, peonies and lavender laced with cardamon, nutmeg, cloves, and sandalwood. Bright redcurrant and cherries givelovely red fruit appeal and great freshness to this complex, layered wine. Fine-grained silky tannins run throughout the palate, giving structure and finesse."
5 Stars & 96/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, January 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"Alluring and enticing, the wine shows sweet berry, olive, thyme and toasted almond characters, beautifully accented by floral overtones. It’s juicy and finely flowing in the mouth offering elegant texture and layers of delicate tannins, making it refined and sumptuous at the same time. Wonderfully composed and poised with a prolonged velvety finish. At its best: 2025 to 2037."
5 Stars Michael Cooper, February 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"The 2018 vintage marked Te Mata's first plunge into the production of top-end Pinot Noir, a varietly not commonly linked to Hawke's Bay, but cultivated in the region since the nineteenth century. Estate-grown inland, at the Woodthorpe Terraces Vineyard in the Dartmoor Valley, it is matured in French oak casks (partly new). The 2022 vintage is one of Te Mata's best reds of the year. Deeply coloured, it is mouthfilling and sweet-fruited, with rich cherry, plum and spice flavours and fine, supple tannins. A strongly varietal wine, savoury, nutty, complex and very harmonious, it's already delicious, but well worth cellaring to 2026+."
95/100 Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, September 2023 (2022 Vintage)
"The 2022 Alma Pinot Noir is supple and light, with an infusion of silty tannins and black tea. This ia a gorgeous wine, totally svelte and structural at once, populated by a saturation of red fruits. There are pomegranate pearls, pink peppercorns, poached strawberry and even a hint of sumac. This is delicious."