Pale ruby -colored, the 2009 Pinot Noir has black raspberry and black cherry aromas with a bit of spearmint, chocolate and anise. It has a good core of ripe and expressive fruit, a low to medium level of very fine tannins and a long finish. A winery that really needs no introduction for NZ Pinot lovers, there’s not much for me to add about the long-serving, dedicated team behind Ata Rangi – they just go from strength to strength. The Pinots have always been great, and yet even in a world where the Pinot benchmark gets higher every year, Ata Rangi is better than ever. (Almost equally impressive though are Petrie and Craighall Chardonnays, clearly getting a lot of love in the cellar from highly skilled winemaker Helen Masters.)