Villa Maria has been one of the dominant and driving forces in regards to the New Zealand wine industry for a good number of years. They have their hat in many rings and have had great success across their extensive portfolio, in its native New Zealand as well as internationally. Their portfolio is vast and filled with many treasures. Pinot Noir has become one of their specialties and their 2019 Reserve Pinot Noir brings this to light. This particular wine, even though it is varietal to a T, has some serious concentration to its red and dark cherry fruit that really shows beautiful depth in the palate with a spicy overture chiming in nicely on its medium bodied frame.

We tried this up against several highly reviewed Pinot Noirs and the 2019 Villa Maria Reserve Pinot Noir stood out as the clear winner, which says quite a lot as all the wines were exceptional and worthy in their own right. The Villa Maria Reserve Pinot Noir had that extra degree of depth and palate presence that set it apart from the others. It has all the attributes that one looks for from this temperamental varietal with some notable reviews giving it the validity it rightly deserves.  There’s no hurry on this one, other than it is downright delicious and pretty hard to resist right now. Anyway you cut it, it’s a serious drop with good complexity and layers of engaging flavors.

For a Marlborough Pinot Noir the 2019 Villa Maria Reserve Pinot Noir has some nice scale to it showcasing good concentration and fruit density. There’s a floral element to the wine’s aromatics, with a touch of herbs and spice lift as well to the darker red berry fruit on the nose. Offering a mix of juicy red and darker cherry fruit flavors on its medium bodied frame, the palate is polished, supple and smooth textured, with nice acidity keeping it fresh while the tannins say that this should hold up nicely over the next 3-4 years quite easily.