Burn Cottage 'Sauvage Vineyard' Pinot Noir

Burn Cottage is one of New Zealand's most respected biodynamic estates, founded in Central Otago by Marquis Sauvage with Ted Lemon of Littorai consulting. Sauvage Vineyard is a separate site at Bannockburn, away from the home block in the Pisa foothills — single-vineyard fruit, whole-bunch ferment, restrained oak. Concentrated, structured, layered. For occasions, for cellaring, for converting Burgundy drinkers.

Sauvage sits at Bannockburn, a separate site from the home vineyard in the Pisa foothills. The soils are Bannockburn series, deep silt loams carrying quartz sand, schist and gravel. They drain hard, which keeps the vines small and the flavours tight. Five Pinot clones are planted across its 5.8 hectares on a mix of rootstocks. The blend has range before the winemaking starts.

The farming is biodynamic and always has been. Burn Cottage was the first Central Otago vineyard developed from bare land that way. The property runs as a working farm with cattle, chickens, bees and olive groves, and makes its own compost.

Give it a decant. It rewards a few years in the cellar.