Rockburn 11 Barrels Pinot Noir 2022 (6x 750mL), Central Otago, NZ.

19/20 (95 pts) - Candice Chow for Raymond Chan Wine Reviews - "Bright, light ruby-red, even colour throughout. This has a gentle, complex bouquet with dark cherry, plum, thyme, sweet spice and toasty oak. Medium-full bodied, dark cherry and plum aromas melded with thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg, unfolding milk chocolate and a hint of caramel. The fruit has a lovely ripeness in the dark-toned spectrum and elegant acidity. The mouthfeel is refined; silky tannins reflect integrated oak and linger with alluring toasty elements. This enticing Pinot Noir possesses black fruit; integrated oak elevates a toasty and silky palate and lends a satisfying, lingreing finish. Match with roasted lamb and duck over the next 10 years. Fruit from ParkburnVineyard, clone Able, fermented in 7-tonne fermenter, 8 days cold soaked, fermented over one week to 13.5% alc, 10 days post-fermentation maceration, aged 14 months in French oak, 27% new oak".

94 / 100 - David Walker Bell, Wine Folio - "A deep ruby colour in the glass, with a signature Central Otago perfume of damson, rosehip, cherry, musky asian spice, pepper and thyme. The palate is compelling, laced with that fleshy fruit and bolstered by granular, pliant tannin. A confident acidity sets the tone for a wine that could be moody and dark, but is driven by a generosity and plushness that emerges as an exotic headiness. The oak, minerality and savoury elements of bracken and peat are neatly tucked-in towards the long, harmonic finish".

17.5/20 - Joelle Thomson - "Full bodied Pinot Noir from cool climates is always a treat and this deep, earthy and structured Pinot Noir from Central Otago expresses ripe cherry and plum notes from a warmer area within what can be a rather chilly region. The highly revered Pinot Noir clone known as Abel makes up 100% of this wine and it is grown on free draining glacial soils at Parkburn, Pisa and Cromwell, which clearly suit its complex layers of ripe flavour. Winemaker Malcolm Rees-Francis gives the grapes eight days of skin contact at cool temperatures followed by fermentation with a week of plunging to extract depth of colour, structure and tannins. The wine spent 14 months in French oak, 27% new, a relatively modest amount of time that flatters the wine".

4.5 Stars - Yvonne Lorkin - "What happens when winemaker Malcolm Rees-Francis gets hold of amazing quality, Abel clone, Parkburn-grown fruit and throws it into a 7tonne fermenter for an eight-day cold soak, followed by a week-long ferment with daily hand plunging then a 10-day post-ferment soak before being aged for 14 months in 27% new French oak? You get this exotically-spiced, soothing, rhubarb and cream-laced lovely with soft, suede-like tannins and a seam of wildfires creeping through wild thyme. Serve in the largest, most swirlable glass you can find."