Valli Gibbston Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018

Air New Zealand
Fine Wines of New Zealand 2020 Selection.

Valli
Glimmering garnet hue with a fascinating array of aromas from mineral and floral to earthy and spicy/herbaceous. The palate commences savoury with delicious dried herb and mushroom flowing into bright red fruit, with a long and spicy finish. The noteworthy “Gibbston” silky, fine tannins coupled with intriguing layers and intricate detail deliver a refined and classy wine from a truly eccentric growing season (hottest and wettest on record!). This wine personifies everything we love about Gibbston Pinot Noir (powerful, graceful, generous and above all – memorable). This wine is drinking beautifully at release and will continue to develop for 10+ years.

Wine Advocate, 95/100
When the weather is just right—typically warm years—Gibbston can excel. Valli’s 2018 Gibbston Vineyard Pinot Noir offers up a stunning array of herbal-floral aromas, hinting at roses, tea and mint, all backed by a core of red cherries. It’s medium-bodied, silky and fine, with plentiful (but ripe) tannins. The 31% new French oak is scarcely noticeable, submerged under the waves of fruit-driven complexity, and the 30% whole-bunch component is similarly well integrated. What a beauty!

Bob Campbell, 95/100
Made with 30% whole-bunches in fermentation, which adds a spicy dimension to this elegant and quite complex pinot noir while leaving access to bright cherry, fresh herb, slate-mineral and spicy oak flavours. Good now but worth waiting a few years.

Cameron Douglas, 93/100
An immediately engaging bouquet with aromas of baking spices and fruit, wood smoke and vanilla. Fresh red cherries and red apple skin, crushed red flowers and a touch of rocky minerality. There’s texture and vibrato in the bouquet which translates through to the palate with fine chalky tannins and a soft unfiltered suggestion. Youthful, fresh and lively on the palate with flavours that reflect the nose plus a soft wild thyme note, earthy and fruity, balanced and lengthy. Nice wine, drinking well now and through 2025.

James Suckling, 93/100
Plenty of fresh red cherries and there’s a very rich, supple and fleshy feel to this wine, a shining example from the warmer, 2018 season. It offers such ample, fleshy, red and dark cherries, in a sweeping wrap of plush tannins. Succulent and juicy finish. Drink or hold.

Michael Cooper, 5/5, Super Classic
The refined, graceful, very youthful 2018 vintage was hand-harvested, matured for 11 months in French oak casks (30 per cent new), and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Ruby-hued, it is floral, savoury and supple, with vibrant, berryish, spicy, nutty, slightly herbal flavours, woven with fresh acidity, impressive complexity and a lasting finish. Best drinking 2022+.