Doctors Flat Pinot

"Vivid, sweet, bright berry and cherry fruits with some spiciness. Smooth with rich texture and sleek fruit. There's a delicacy to this wine, as well as richness. It has a smooth mineral quality on the palate." JG 93

"Perfumed and floral with nice black cherries. Quite rich. Lovely sleek, ripe black cherry fruits and a spicy, mineral dimension. " JG 92

"Fresh with slightly meaty black cherry fruit and some floral overtones. Good texture and freshness here with some grippy tannins. Concentrated, full and grippy." JG 93

"About 20% whole bunch. Fresh and lively with nice precision. Bright with lovely focus: not too heavy, with nice sweet cherry and berry fruit. Has vitality and focus and could use a bit more time. " JG 94

"26% whole bunch. Just beautiful. Taut and floral with black and red cherry fruit. Real finesse. There's some savoury detail to the fruit, and it's supple and elegant with nice structure and texture." 95/100 JG

“Elegant Pinot Noir with wonderfully pure cherry, plum sweetness and an ethereal texture. Very seductive wine indeed that's deceptively easy to drink now because it would be easy to assume that it won't get any better. It will. Made with a very light touch. ” BC 95

"Deep ruby, it is mouthfilling, rich and savoury, with deep, ripe plum/spice flavours, showing excellent complexity, and fine-grained tannins. Very generous and savoury, it's approachable now. The classy 2014 vintage is a single-vineyard red, grown at Bannockburn, matured for a year in French oak barrels (25 per cent new), and bottled without fining or filtering.” MC 95

"Dark, deep, ruby-red colour, a little lighter on the rim with some garnet hues. This has a firm, full and deeply concentrated, complex nose with an amalgam of dark-red berry fruits along with savoury dark and dried herbs, some subtle whole bunch stalk perfumes, and nuances of earth. The aromatics possess excellent density and presence, with the beginnings of interest from secondary development. Medium-full bodied, the palate has lively and vibrant flavours of complex savoury dark-red berry fruits entwined with herbs and whole bunch stalk elements, and a soft layering of earth and undergrowth elements, forming a finely concentrated and...

"Distinctive in its ripeness and steely almost haunting bouquet. Aromas of dried raspberry and dark spicy plum, black currant of dark rose, classic Otago wild thyme and rocky mineral layers; complex, youthful and engaging. On the palate - fruity, tense, youthful and dry. Fruit flavours reflect the nose with raspberry and red cherry, some red apple skin then earth, mineral, dried herb and plum. Firm tannins, medium+ acidity and a lengthy persistent finish. A lovely wine still coming together. Will age well from today and through 2022. Best drinking 2021 through 2027." CAM DOUGLAS 94/100

"I have always admired the style that is Doctor’s Flat. In addition to tasting each successive vintage of this wine I have also been able to gauge how vine age, vintage and climate challenges a viticulture team as well as a winemaker- with excellent results. This example offers aromas of a wine reflection its origins perfectly - a savoury, dried herb Otago signature precedes a bouquet of dark cherry and dried raspberry, baking spices and toasty-oak with a leesy almost salty youthful reduction. On the palate - complex, detailed, savoury, fruity, varietal and pure. Flavours of berries and dried fruits reflect the nose, tannins and...

"Complex, savoury, true to region and variety with aromas of dark berries, plum and dried herb with a thyme and stony soils aromas, dark cherry and a touch of dried raspberry. Enticing with intrigue and focus on variety and site. Delicious on the palate with flavours that mirror the bouquet, firm-ish tannins and great acid line with a delicious savoury complexity. An excellent example capturing the variety, a sense of place and wonderful pinosity. Best drinking from late 2021 through 2027+." CAM DOUGLAS 94/100

The story of Doctor's Flat Vineyard begins in the late 1980s, in France and California, where Steve Davies first encountered great practitioners of old world winemaking, and the best of new world innovators. By 1999 Steve had settled in Central Otago, making Pinot for Akarua and on the hunt for his own land. He was looking for something in particular—a site that would offer all the conditions he had come to believe were essential for great Pinot. It was a long and thorough search, and in 2002 he found it, an elevated site on deep glacial gravels in Bannockburn. After then making wine for Carrick and supplying grapes to Valli,...