WINERY Established in 1896, Te Mata Estate remains family owned, producing internationally recognized wines exclusively from its Hawke’s Bay vineyards, located on New Zealand’s North Island. Te Mata Estate is home to New Zealand’s oldest vineyards and wine cellars with over 125 years of continuous wine production.

WINE Sourced exclusively from Te Mata Estate’s own vineyards. The estate wines represent the best qualities of their variety, vintage, and Hawke’s Bay origin. The 2022 Estate Pinot Noir was harvested between February 22nd and 24th, 2022 from Te Mata Estate’s Woodthorpe Terraces vineyard.

Woodthorpe Terraces is nestled between sheltering hills on elevated, free-draining, north-facing terraces in Hawke’s Bay Dartmoor Valley. The soils, which were left behind as the Tutaekuri River eroded its path through the hills to the sea, are mainly alluvial stone, clay and sandy loam. Vineyard planting began in 1994 and today Woodthorpe Terraces has 75 hectares under vine, planted to number of varietals and is the winery’s sole source for Pinot Noir.

A memorable, incredibly early vintage. A challenging harvest with two large rain events leading to some early picks from fragile crops. It resulted in wines with great varietal expression, restraint, tension, power, and length.

The individual lots were each destemmed, cold soaked followed by a traditional plunged fermentation. The resulting wines underwent extended maceration on skins before pressing. The separate wines were then run to a mixture of new and seasoned French oak barriques for 11 months’ maturation.

Bright cherry red in color jumps from the glass with raspberry, cherry, plum and strawberry and a lifted floral perfume of lavender and raspberry. Earthy, savoury notes of rosemary and woodsmoke interplay with the bright red fruit and supporting ripe tannins, to carry the wine through to its precise, long finish.