The 2007 Pinot Gris brims with joie-de-vivre on the nose with scents of nectarine, passion fruit and star fruit although it suffers a lacks of definition, the palate perhaps just a little overdone with a multi-faceted personality: spice, beeswax, guava, passion fruit - almost as if too much is going on. Still, this is an engaging wine, full of personality. TerraVin is a boutique winery established by Mike Eaton who purchased his first 3.2-hectares of vines in 1998 with another 6.8-hectares planned in the future. The vineyard is based in the Omaka Valley on a north-facing slope with clay-rich soil that naturally reduces vigor, reduced further by high density planting of 5,000 vines/ha. Mike, himself, has almost unparalleled experience of vineyard management in Marlborough, having planted the area's first vines as a general laborer for Montana Wines at their Brancott vineyard in the 1970s. When I visited, he had just sold part of the vineyard to Spy Valley so that he could focus on Pinot Noir and Bordeaux varieties. These are full-bodied, beautifully hand-crafted wines with superb complexity and subtlety and are well worth seeking out, particularly his stunning reds.No known American importer.