BABICH WINEMAKERS' RESERVE PINOT NOIR 2005  

Overview:
The warm days and cool nights that Marlborough are ideal for the Pinot Noir grape.  An early ripening variety, it benefits from the warm days, high sunshine hours and cool nights that develop intense flavour while maintaining balanced acidity in the fruit.

Grapes: 
100% Pinot Noir

Region:
Marlborough

Winemaker:
Adam Hazeldine

Recommended Food: 
Winemakers Reserve Pinot Noir would make a pleasant match with duck, lamb and other red meat dishes. Try it with a warm lamb salad topped with kumara crisps and strawberry vinagrette.

Recommended Cellaring: 
1-6 years

Production Notes:
The various parcels of fruit were harvested at optimum ripeness and fermented in open vats, 10% whole cluster. After an extended period of maceration the various batches were drained off skins and put into new and old French oak barriques. After 11 months the wines were assessed and blended then returned to oak for a further two months. Bottling took place on the 22nd of June 2006. This wine is a blend of five clones predominately 667 and 777.

Tasting Notes:
This deeply coloured Pinot Noir has a brooding bouquet of black cherry, earth and spice. The palate is dense and well structured with spice and dark fruits - predominately cherry and plum. A touch of char joins the lengthy finish. A rich and opulent wine with warmth and balance.

Awards:
SILVER MEDAL
-New Zealand Royal Easter Show Wine Awards 2007

Reviews:
"Deep, rich red. Soft, ripe nose with a flicker of oak amongst the black-boy aromas. Powerful aromatic fruit impact has black-boy peach flavours tinged with fresh plums and a mild feral note that gathers in the mid palate and offers an extra dimension to the fat, ripe characters. Mild tannins deliver some astringency to the finish, complementing the ripeness and lush fruit characters. Good length, plenty of chunky flavours and a generous attitude."
7/10
-Keith Stewart, Sommnet Website, 30 July, 2006

"Marlborough wine, five clones, open fermented and 13 months new and old oak. Lovely texture, the concentration of the fruit is delicious yet not heavy and the wine is opening up brilliantly, balanced, well fruited and  complex."
4.5 STARS
-Winestate Magazine, Peter Saunders, November, 2006

"Grown in the Wairau Valley, matured in French oak casks new and seasoned, the 2005 vintage is dark, fleshy and rounded, with concentrated plum, herb and spice flavours."
-Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines, 2007

"Ruby, some velvet, big for pinot noir.  Bouquet is richly blackboy peach, with light buddleia-like florals, and some under-pinning bottled plum, all slightly stewed / over-ripe. Palate has plenty of berry and fruit,  a little more oak than the bouquet suggests, and flavours combining bottled blackboys and dark plums. Finish goes a little oaky/spirity. A new style for Babich pinot,  as if both over-ripe and saignée."
17/20
4 STARS
-Geoff Kelly Wine Reviews, November, 2006

"The 2005 Winemaker's Reserve is medium dark ruby and displays lovely ripe plum and black cherry fruit on the palate with notes of herbs and sandalwood.  It is a beautifully made wine revealing fine balance, good acidity, and a long lasting finish."
-i-winereview.com, Issue 7, July 2007

"Rich and dark in colour, this wine shows plenty of oak and wood shaving notes on the nose.  The palate is dense and concentrated with lashings of good robust fruit on the palate and balanced oak.  This is a big style but well propotioned and nicely balanced with supple, plentiful tannins and good length.  Good wine."
-WineNZ, Pinot Noir Under $30 Short List, Winter 2007

"Some nicely intense Pinot Noir fruit without any heaviness and a delicious texture showing light oak and tannin.  Clearly a premium young wine with some finesse."
-Peter Saunders, A Guide to New Zealand Wine 2007

*New label as shown released November, 2006.