Reviews & awards

Wild Earth Wines
- Unsung Heroes - Gourmet Traveller Wine Feb/Mar 2009
- Top Five New NZ Wineries. NZ Herald 3 May 2006

Wild Earth Pinot Noir

Vintage 2008

Winestate - 4.5 Stars

Vintage 2007

Cuisine Magazine - Top New Zealand Pinot Noir 2009
Gold Medal - New Zealand International Wine Show 2008
94 points - Bob Campbell
92 points - Wine Spectator
Five Stars - Michael Coopers Buyer's Guide to NZ Wine
Five Stars - Gourmet Traveller Wine

Vintage 2006

Wild Earth Pinot Noir 2006 awarded Six Trophies

International Wine Challenge (London) June & September 2008 (download press release)

Top International Red Wine
Top International Pinot Noir
Top New Zealand Red Wine
Top New Zealand Pinot Noir
Top Central Otago Pinot Noir

Decanter World Wine Awards May 2008 (download press release)

Top New Zealand Pinot Noir (London) June 2008

88 pts Wine Spectator May 2008
Wine of the Week, New Zealand Herald
The Independent (London) review Dec 2007:
"Wild Earth Pinot Noir from Central Otago in New Zealand is a beauty..."
Gold Medal New Zealand International Wine Show 2007
Silver Medal Air New Zealand Wine Competition 2007

Vintage 2005

Gold Medal Los Angeles International Wine Competition 2007
TOP 1OO Wines of the Competition - Sydney International Wine Show 2007
Gold Medal Royal New Zealand Easter Show 2007
Blue Gold Medal Winner – Sydney International Wine Show 2007
5 Stars Winestate magazine, Michael Cooper
Deep ruby, with an enticingly perfumed bouquet, it's a silky-textured wine with an abundance of ripe, sweet-fruit characters, vibrant cherry and spice flavours, savoury, earthy notes adding complexity, and lovely flow and depth.
4 Stars Cuisine magazine Sept 2007
Anthony Rose, The Independent Sept 07
One of my favourites, and not overly priced for the quality, is the sumptuous 2005 Wild Earth Pinot Noir.
The Secret Cellar (UK wine blog)
Wild Earth: "The red wine of the day at a recent tasting that Mike and I attended. And that was out of about 250 other reds"
Sue Courtenay Wine of the Week Aug 2007
Beautifully balanced with a fine silky, slightly grainy texture, this medium to full-bodied style is earthy and intriguing with the orange zest detected on the nose emerging again to linger with hints of chocolate and spice on the persistent, fruity finish.
YvonneMarie.co.nz – Wine & Food blog
4 ½ Stars Wow! It is rich, juicy and altogether sexy pinot indeed, with baked strawberry, plum and summer pudding-like flavours that leap around the palate like a long-jumper at the ‘lympics. Love it!
Bob Campbell – Taste Magazine
Ripe dark cherry, brambles and blackberry flavours with a soft, sweet structure of fine tannins. A thoroughly charming and accessible wine that offers great value at this price.

Vintage 2004

91 points, Natalie MacLean, Nat Decants E-Newsletter, Canada, May 06
“Loads of ripe red fruit, full-bodied and balanced. A towering wine."
Silver Medal, International Wine Challenge 2006 - London
90 points, Gordon Stimmell, Toronto Star 17 May 2006
“A splendid Otago example is 2004 Wild Earth Pinot Noir with strawberry and clove complexity"
Blue Gold Medal Winner – Sydney International Wine Show 2007
Wine of the Week, Joelle Thomson, NZ Herald 24 May 2006
“The Splurge – a bright fresh, cherry taste"
Wine of the Week, Charmian Smith, Otago Daily Times 3 May 2006
“Deliciously fragrant, with dark fruits and savoury hints…concentrated and silky…"
Wine of the Week, Sue Courtney, 19 Mar 2006
“…totally seduced me…rich and savoury with tamarillo and plum fruit, a gamey savouriness"
90 points 4 Stars Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine Dec/Jan 2006
4 Stars Michael Cooper’s Buyer’s Guide 2006
“…ripe flavours of cherries, plums and spice, savoury, complex notes and a long, firm finish."
Top Nine over-$30 Central Otago Pinot Noir. Cuisine magazine November 2005
4½ Stars Winestate Australia Sept 2006
"Pretty smart pinot noir, fleshy and already quite intense in its fruit characters. Good spine and texture starting to emerge very well."

Wild Earth Riesling

Vintage 2006

Surf4wine.co.uk (wine blog) Feb 2008: Stylistically somewhere between the Clare Valley in Australia and a German Riesling, perhaps from the Mosel. Limey with hints of grapefruit, there is residual sugar, making this a distinctly 'medium'style. Excellent balance and a lovely zingy, fresh acidity.
Silver Medal Air New Zealand Wine Competition 2007

Vintage 2005

Wine of the Week, Sue Courtney, 19 Mar 2006
"exquisite line and length…lemon, lime, bee pollen and orange emerge and linger powerfully on the naturally fruity finish"
91 points 4 Stars Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine Dec/Jan 2006
Charmian Smith, Otago Daily Times 28 June 2006
" the sweetness is held in nervous tension with the steely acidity…this is a wine that will definitely benefit from a few more years bottle age. I expect it will be heaven sipped with strawberries on a summer’s afternoon in 2008 or 2010"
5 Stars Winestate Australia Sept 2006
"Lovely riesling, quite silky in texture and generous in fruit…nicely balanced with some quite exotic riesling fruit. A delicious and fragrant wine opening up very well."

Wild Earth Pinot Gris

Vintage 2006

4 Stars Winestate magazine, Michael Cooper
Lush, soft and already delicious, this fresh-scented Bannockburn wine was partly barrel-aged. A distinctly medium style (21 grams/litre of residual sugar), it is fleshy, with stone-fruit and spice flavours and a very harmonious, well-rounded finish.
Silver Medal Air New Zealand Wine Competition 2006

Vintage 2005

Charmian Smith, Otago Daily Times 21 June 2006
"fragrant with a surprising concentration of charming fruit hinting of peaches and a good clean finish"

Blind Trail Pinot Noir

Vintage 2003

Sue Courtenay Wine of the Week Oct 2004
Smoky herbs and macerated cherries on the nose lead into a dry savoury palate with mulled wine spices, subtle fruit and a long, spicy, citrus-infused finish. It may be lighter in colour than some of the other Central Otago pinot, but what it lacks in colour, it does not lack in substance with its fine silky tannins and all-round, gutsy, vinous pleasure.
Top Twelve Fine Wines in Tesco – Jancis Robinson, Financial Times, March 2006
Jane MacQuitty, The Times (London), Apr 2006
Central Otago is the prime Kiwi spot for pinot noir, capable of making Burgundy look silly. So lap up this delicious, ripe, silky, rose-scented and plum-packed red and rejoice.
Michael Franz, Wine Review Online Jul 2007
This is my first look at a wine from this producer, and we are now officially off to a good start. Nicely balanced, it shows both a meaty, substantial side but also a delicacy and laciness that will make it very versatile with grilled fish and white meat dishes. Cork finished, this is now a near museum piece in the realm of Kiwi Pinot in this regard, but the wine remains very fresh and vibrant. 86

Vintage 2006

Gold Medal Dallas Wine Competition 2008
Sue Courtenay Wine of the Week Aug 2007
It's hauntingly smoky with spiced cherry on the nose and ripe and juicy in the palate with a velvety texture, tart red fruits, hints of plums, spicy oak, dried herbs and a suggestion of rose petal on the perfumed finish. There's a lovely earthy savouriness to this wine, which delivers exceptional quality and amazing complexity for its $23 price tag.
Silver Medal Air New Zealand Wine Competition 2007