Dog Point Pinot Noir

One of the new things introduced by the first Europeans to settle in Marborough, on New Zealand’s South Island, was sheep. Since there were no fences at that time, the horsemen guarding the area from possible attacks used sheepdogs to watch over the herd. However, some of these dogs strayed and, once they had left, formed their own pack. A pack of dogs that would even attack the very flocks they had previously protected. Hence the name of the first European settlement, Dog Point, the same name that Ivan Sutherland and James Sealy use to present their most personal project. Winegrower and winemaker of the renowned Cloudy Bay, in 2004 the two colleagues decided to move on and set up their own winery to produce quality wines.

Their Dog Point Pinot Noir wine is a great introduction to their work. Sourced from vineyards planted by Ivan himself in Marlborough in the 1970s, the vines include six different clones of Pinot Noir, some of which are the oldest in the region. They are cultivated using organic agriculture with no chemical products and the harvest and selection processes are carried out manually. 75% of the grapes are destemmed and fermentation takes place in small open stainless steel tanks with native yeasts for 2-3 weeks. It is then pressed and the resulting wine is aged in French oak barrels (30% new) for 18 months.

That is how they make Dog Point Pinot Noir, one of the best Pinot Noir wines in New Zealand, and the result of powerful vines and the experience of two of the region’s great veterans. As Suckling himself explains, this is “a complex and fragrant Pinot Noir. Impressively intense.”