2015 Marauder Southern Cross Pinot Noir Misha's Vineyard Bendigo Central Otago New Zealand 750 ml

The 2015 Marauder Southern Cross Misha’s Vineyard Pinot Noir is the kind of deal you score once in a blue moon. A single-vineyard Pinot Noir from a 100-point winemaker, this is the kind of deal we can offer thanks only to our connections in wine country. 

Drawing on his experience crafting 98-100 point California Cabernets, master winemaker Kirk Venge infused this New Zealand Pinot Noir with a Napa-like intensity and power that seduced us from the moment we uncorked the bottle. Ruby-violet in the glass, his 2015 Marauder Pinot Noir is rich and gorgeously contoured around a bramble and dark berry core. Wildflowers, spiced cola, and vanilla build voluminously on the palate to a succulent finish that will leave you wondering how you landed this for under $50.

There’s only a few places in New Zealand capable of producing Pinot of this unbridled power, and Kirk found what might be the best of them: the sun-drenched Misha’s Vineyard in Bendigo, Central Otago. An iconic hillside plot that swoops like a ski slope down to the edge of a sparkling lake, it’s known as the source of some of Otago’s most coveted Pinot grapes. You’d be hard-pressed to find another Pinot of this pedigree for under $50 anywhere in the world.

“My heart is in Napa, but I just couldn’t stay away from New Zealand,” Kirk told us over a dinner of lobster risotto paired with this wine. Born in Rutherford, he’s California Cabernet royalty: His father, Nils Venge, produced the 1985 Groth Reserve Cabernet, the first California wine to win 100 points from Robert Parker. 

Following in the steps of his father, Kirk has produced a slew of high-scoring wines for Venge, Beau Vigne, and JAX Vineyards, clinching his own perfect score from Parker for the incandescent 2013 Beau Vigne Reserve Cabernet. 

But for all his experience in Napa, one of the early, formative experiences in Kirk’s vinicultural education occurred in New Zealand, when he went to work for Rapaura Vintners in Marlborough. He was instantly enamored by the terroir of extremes, and knew it wasn’t his last trip there.

Founding the Marauder line as a way to fuel wine adventures around the world, Kirk followed his nose for terrific vineyards across the craggy plains of New Zealand to the jewel of Otago, Misha’s Vineyard. First planted in 2005, it’s one of the warmest sites in the region, with a single, dramatic northwest-oriented slope facing the reflective surface of Lake Dunstan.

“The concentration comes from the vintage and vineyard,” Master Sommelier Sur Lucero explained to us when he returned from New Zealand last month. “Usually you aren’t seeing this type of ripeness and power from Central Otago, but it all makes sense when you see the incredible sun exposure this site gets.”

River gravel and sandy loam soils, together with 100% sustainable farming of the vines, give this Pinot Noir its amazing complexity, making this an overperformer for the ages, and a no-brainer case-buy.