I was among eight or nine writers from New Zealand and Australia who tasted 75 pinot noirs that are on the market or soon will be.
The silence and concentration as we worked through the wines was only broken by people getting up from their computers to fetch another set of wines to sniff, swirl, taste, spit and make notes.
And whenever you looked up there was the wonderful view of the lake and mountains.
Outside a pair of paradise ducks called to each other as they flew over the vineyard below.
Apart from three wines of earlier vintages, half the wines were from 2010, a powerful, concentrated vintage, and the rest from 2011, a challenging year that nevertheless turned out some excellent fruit.
Not surprisingly, wines from the two vintages were distinctively different.
The 2010s were darker, richer, firmer and denser, while the 2011s were lighter in colour and weight but had more finesse, elegance and above all, charm. The differences reminded me of those between the big, ripe 2002s and the more harmonious, charming 2003s, which in general turned out to be more long-lived. It will be interesting to see if this happens with this pair of vintages as well.
Among the 2010s, the wines that stood out for me were the rich, spicy Wanaka Road pinot noir ; a lively, harmonious Ceres Composition pinot; the powerful, dense Terra Sancta Slapjack Block; the mineral and sweet cherry Doctors Flat; the charming Wooing Tree and the seductive Wooing Tree Sandstorm Reserve; the graceful, textural Surveyor Thompson; the intriguing, silky Rippon Emma's Block; the powerful, well-structured but charming Ellero Pisa Terrace; Lowburn Ferry's mellow The Ferryman Reserve; Rockburn's firm but seductive The Art; and Valli's attractive Gibbston Vineyard pinot noir.
Among the 2011s, I enjoyed the spicy, cherry fruit of Serendipity The Vineyard; the attractive strawberry fruit of the Mondillo; the complexity of Coal Pit Tiwha; the stylish Gibbston Valley Le Maitre, its attractive Gold River, and its rich complex Schoolhouse; Lowburn Ferry's supple Skeleton Creek; Carrick's perfumed Unravelled, and Aurum's savoury Mathilde.
• Charmian Smith attended the spring release tasting and 25th anniversary celebrations as a guest of Central Otago Pinot Noir Ltd.
