te Pa Reserve Westhaven Pinot Noir 2025

Tasting Note

This Pinot Noir possesses powerful, complex and attractive aromas of red and blue fruits, liquorice, violets, baking spice, cedar, and fresh tobacco. The palate reveals classic Pinot Noir characters of cherry, cola, and cranberry with layers of five spice, cinnamon, and aniseed. The new oak provides some subtle coffee and mocha notes. The primary fruit is enveloped by fine, chalky tannins.

Aromas and flavours:

Additional information

Type: red wine

Grape variety: 100% Pinot Noir

Food match: Lamb, venison, beef, pork, nutty cheeses, mushroom dishes

Vineyard: Westhaven Vineyard, Awatere Valley, Marlborough, New Zealand. The Westhaven Vineyard is situated in the Dashwood Pass near the entrance to the Awatere Valley. The soils of this north-facing slope consist of rich clays. This low cropping vineyard is pruned to two canes and is planted in the four classic Dijon clones 115, 114, 667 and 777.

Vintage summary: The major influence of the 2025 season was an incredibly warm period of weather which settled over Marlborough at flowering. The result was the best fruit set in recent memory. The growing season was dry, with Jan/Feb being relatively mild, before it warmed up again in March leading into a warm and settled late summer. We identified the large crop early and proceeded to reduce crops on all blocks. Ripening was slower due to the healthy yields and cooler summer, and so harvest was later than in recent years. The longer ripening period meant we got good flavour development and good physiological ripeness. The wines possess pure aromatic expressions, refined acidity, ripe fruit and lovely delicate phenolics. It was a season where the naturally lower yielding Awatere Valley Vineyards performed exceptionally well.

Winemaking: The fruit was hand-picked on the morning of the 3rd April. Once at the winery it was cold soaked for 7-10 days prior to being warmed for ferment. The wine spent an additional 10-15 days on skins post-fermentation to build structure and harmonise the tannins. The batches were then gently pressed and dropped to 228 L French barriques. A third of the barrels were new and were selected from a handful of our most trusted coopers. In 2025 the batch of 667 clone with 30% whole bunch stood out from the rest and thus, the Reserve wine was made from the nine best barrels; three of which were new. The wine was matured for 15 months in barrel, before being racked to tank, settled, and bottled without fining or filtration.

Alcohol: 14.5% vol

Total acidity: 4.8 g/l

Residual sugar: <1 g/l

pH: 3.78

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: contains sulphites

Cellaring potential: 2030+

Closure: Screwcap

Ingredients: Raw materials: Grapes, Preservatives: Potassium metabisulphite (E 224), Acidity regulators: Tartaric acid (E 334), Stabilisers: Yeast mannoproteins, Packaging gases: Bottled in a protective atmosphere.

Produced and bottled by: te Pa Family Vineyards Ltd, 515 Wairau Bar Road, R.D.3, Blenheim Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand