Lawsons Dry Hills Pinot Noir 2021

Lawson`s Dry Hills Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New  Zealand, 2021

Grape: 100% Pinot Noir, 3 plots on clay soil in Southern Valleys, sustainable farming, 10 months' maturation in French oak (5% new)

Producer Tasting Note:

The Marlborough region is justly renowned for its supple, fruit-driven Pinot Noir and this wine is right up there with the best. It is a lovely burgundy hue with a warm, inviting nose of strawberry, raspberry and a touch of smoky, vanillin oak. The ripe berry flavours are matched with a lovely soft mouthfeel and fine silky tannins. Perhaps more importantly, it is quite delicious!

Critics' Tasting Notes:

"A complete wine with a complex bouquet of baking spices and red berry fruits, boysenberry and plum then dark cherry and barrel spices. Still youthfully firm with tension and poise relaxing quickly to release the flow of red berry flavours and spice. Dusty fine tannins with a clove and cacao texture, acidity carries the core fruit flavours and layer of mineral earthy ideas. Balanced, well made, still developing yet drinking well now and through 2030."

94/100 points, Cameron Douglas MS, April 2025

"Bright red-fruited aromas of wild strawberries, raspberries, cedar and blackberry bush. The palate is medium-bodied with firmly framed tannins and vivid acidity. Juicy and rounded, it finishes slightly bitter. Drink now. Screw cap."

James Suckling, March 2025

Lawson’s Dry Hills is a boutique winery, close to Blenheim in New Zealand’s Marlborough region. They are part of the Family of Twelve, a fraternity of twelve of New Zealand’s most prestigious and enduring artisanal wineries.

The original company vineyard was planted in 1982 by Ross and Barbara Lawson, who launched the Lawson’s Dry Hills label some ten years later, in 1992. Today, the company’s wines range from Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir to Riesling and Gewurztraminer and are all made from fruit grown in the Wairau, Waihopai, Omaka and Awatere Valleys. These different regions and carefully selected vineyard sites provide varying characteristics derived from the different soils and microclimates, giving many options when it comes to blending to that much-anticipated Lawson’s style.

The dedicated bunch of people that make up the small team here are relaxed in company, yet passionate about their wines. They are very ‘hands on’, living and breathing every part of the viticultural and winemaking process and love to share their award-winning wines with others.

Food Match: Salmon, mushroom dishes, and duck. It also complements lighter meats like pork, chicken, and veal.