Central Otago winery nails Decanter tasting in UK

Central Otago winery nails Decanter tasting in UK - "Outstanding"

26 August 2016

Central Otago winegrowers Roger and Jean Gibson are elated that a wine from their Lowburn Ferry vineyard has ranked Number One in high profile Decanter magazine in the UK. The in-depth tasting of more than 170 pinot noirs from across New Zealand in Decanter's September 2016 issue was carried out by a panel of three prominent UK industry wine judges. Lowburn Ferry Home Block Pinot Noir 2014 scored 96 points out of a possible 100, giving it “Outstanding” status in the tasting.

In the covering feature article reviewing the tasting, New Zealand is described as being “the best Pinot-producing country outside of France.”

Lowburn Ferry's Home Block Pinot Noir 2014 “shone” for one of the panel - Phillip Tuck, MW. “A mightily impressive and complex Pinot in an admirably understated, fresh and cool-climate style…Generous without being rich, and stylish without being showy,” he said. “Truly beautiful” was how he summed up his tasting notes.

“This wine is really building on the quality it has shown from the start,” said wine judge Christine Parkinson.

The award for Lowburn Ferry follows last year's accolade for the previous vintage (Lowburn Ferry Home Block Pinot Noir 2013) which won Number One New Zealand wine in NZ wine and food magazine “Cuisine” .

“It's fantastic for us to have this exposure for Lowburn Ferry and for Central Otago in one of our growing key markets, the UK” says Roger Gibson. “Brand recognition is so important and this really helps us consolidate on our previous successes. For a little vineyard I feel we our punching above our weight – we've only planted 3.5 ha of our 40 ha in the Lowburn Valley… it makes sense to think about planting more now to increase the production to meet growing demands.”

Lowburn Ferry Home Block Pinot Noir 2014, which is the winery's current vintage (while stocks last), also won the Trophy for Best Pinot Noir at the Sydney International Wine Competition, earlier this year. Lowburn Ferry exports about 70 percent of its wines, with key markets being Australia, the UK, China and North America.

Central Otago now has nearly 1500 hectares planted in the red wine grape variety pinot noir. New Zealand wine exports last year were worth almost $1.6 billion (NZ dollars), up 10% on the previous year, according to the New Zealand Winegrowers' Annual Report released this week.

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