2017 Escarpment Te Rehua Single Vineyard Pinot Noir Martinborough New Zealand 750 ml

We had been in New Zealand for a week already, and every day seemed to surprise us more than the previous one with the sheer excitement of the wines we were tasting. The closing dinner, a barbecue organized by a local friend of ours, was attended by a handful of the country’s best producers, each of whom had brought two bottles of their best wines to the picnic tables in the vineyard.

As soon as we tasted the 2017 Escarpment Te Rehua Single Vineyard Pinot Noir, we knew we’d been poured something special. By the second glass, we agreed that we had to find a way to offer it to Wine Access members: It’s a wine that will convince Pinot lovers that New Zealand is playing in the big leagues.

It’s unforgettable, showing brambly and red cherry fruit, purple flowers, roses, and spice, with a finish that promises another decade of evolution, though it is absolutely gorgeous already. The 2017 Escarpment Te Rehua is the kind of deep, concentrated red that typically costs substantially more than the $50 we’re offering it for today.

James Suckling agreed with our enthusiasm in his 96-point review, praising it as “succulent and rich...with a driving array of ripe and fleshy dark plums and berries, as well as a very plump, juicy core.” Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate called winemaker Larry McKenna “one of New Zealand’s Pinot Noir gurus.” Wine Enthusiast loved its “stoney minerals [that] drape like a string of pearls around delicate red and black fruit and spice, smudged with tar and smidgens of smoked meat and earth.”

This is the New Zealand Pinot Noir that collectors have been waiting for: It over-delivers for the price, and represents the very best of the country where it’s produced. Which makes sense, considering that McKenna has been perfecting New Zealand Pinot for decades, and is now widely considered one of the variety’s masters around the world.

McKenna first made his name as a visionary, ambitious winemaker at Martinborough Vineyard, which he joined in 1986 because of the similarities between the cool-climate Martinborough region and the world-famous terroirs of the Côte de Nuits. When he went on to start Escarpment and began putting vines in the soil in 1999, he pioneered high-density planting in Martinborough, using similar spacing—roughly 3,350 vines per acre—as in Burgundy.

Since then, his single-vineyard Pinots have become some of the most sought-after reds in New Zealand, and among the most quickly snapped-up Pinots we offer here at Wine Access. Wine Enthusiast pointed out that, even among the elevated company of his other single-vineyard bottlings, this one “is perhaps the most fruit-forward up-front sipper of the lot, though there's still bags of complexity.” It proves that McKenna is a winemaker at the top of his game.

The Te Rehua Pinot is grown on a deeply respected vineyard that’s sheltered from the winds that famously buffet Martinborough, resulting in a riper, richer style. And because the vineyard is planted with a broad range of clones, it yields a stunningly complex Pinot.

Typically $60, we’re offering it for nearly 20% less, no matter how many bottles you buy. McKenna has been dubbed the “Prince of Pinot” by James Halliday, Australia’s foremost wine writer, and this bottling amply demonstrates why. Given the price, he may well also have been called the “Prince of Pinots that Punch Above their Weight.”

That evening at the barbecue, tucking into locally raised lamb that had been smoked over Pinot vines, we couldn’t get enough of the 2017 Escarpment Te Rehua. Even among some of the highest scoring wines in the country, it was the clear standout. By the end of the night, we had made a deal, and we’re proud to offer it today at the best price in the nation. It doesn’t get much better than this.