Accolades & Reviews 2006 . . .

Expertwine.com - Matthew Jukes, UK March 2006

2005 Felton Road Riesling, Central Otago , New Zealand (£12.00)
From Issue 50: New Zealand Tasting Report (17/02/06)

Luscious and precisely balanced. The next step in NZ Riesling Felton Road makes three Rieslings – of which, on a scale of dry to sweetness, this is the middle one.Last year Matthew picked this wine as being the one of the trio to watch (whilst I felt that it was marginally shaded by the Dry) – but sure enough he proved to be right, as in 2005 this “Kabinett” style wine is clearly out in front.

Now before you all click on to the next wine having seen a German word applied to this wine, STOP right there! Even if you are only just discovering Riesling via the zesty, citrusy, cool climate New World wines (or still shudder at the memory of a traumatizing cheap German experience in your youth) you must try this wine.

It is so beautifully judged, a delicate tri-partite balance between relatively high residual sugar (48 grams), high natural acidity and an alcohol level of just 9.0%. The end result is a wine of luscious citrus and tropical flavours, but with an almost floral lightness and precise, complementary acidity.

You can of course make the full Felton Road Riesling comparison by trying the Dry (5 grams of residual sugar, £12-18) and Block 1 (65 grams of residual sugar and Spätlese style £18-21) Rieslings. But if Chardonnay is more your bag, then 2004 Felton Road Block 6 Chardonnay, Central Otago £25-30 is what you should be tracking down. It has fine, creamy, elegant flavours and a layered, sophisticated complexity.

Remarkably elegant and stylish, the Pinot Noirs are ripe and silky with subtle tannins; the gently-oaked Chardonnays are refined and well-balanced, while the Rieslings could have come from the Mosel itself.

Runaway top wine of the group was the standard 2005 Felton Road Pinot Noir, which has an absolutely enchanting and highly floral bouquet which defines the variety, followed by rich fruit. The standard wine is a little less oak influenced than the Block wines, and the varietal character really shines. It will cellar for 10-12 years.

Felton Road
Rated #1 producer in Central Otago
"This producer does it well and consistently, leading the way with its three pinot noir labels: the flagship Block 5, Block 3 and the least expensive label, Felton Road Pinot Noir.
Wine to try: 2005 Felton Road Pinot Noir" $70AUD

- Listed among the Top Wine Producers in New Zealand
- 2006 Felton Road Riesling listed in Best Wines of 2007

Felton Road 'Block 5' Central Otago Pinot Noir 2004

14.5% alc., fruit from Block 5 of the Elms vineyard, Bannockburn. 11 months in 30% new French oak, then 6 months in 3 y.o. oak. Brilliant ruby red with some garnet hues to the colour. Powerful, concentrated plump, plum and dark berry nose, just intense and rich. A very sumptuously rich and juicy fruited palate with great concentration. Masses of sweet berry fruit flavours with plenty of oak also. Great depth and weight. A little soft and rounded with moderate tannin extraction. Good acidity for freshness. 18.5/20

….A few years later I made the acquaintance of Felton Road Pinot Noir from Central Otago – which completely blew my mind. These wines still had the delicacy and subtlety – but they seemed more like Grand Cru Burgundies, the ones that are rich, the ones you have to be rich to buy. Tanzer concurs, awarding no wines higher scores than the Felton Road wines, which happen to be imported into the US by the same company that imports Burgundy’s most famous estate, the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.

Stephen Bennett MW
Top 10 Winemakers in New Zealand
Blair Walter. His inspiration is always “the last great bottle I tried and looking forward to the next one” and great admiration for the wines and techniques of leading French and German winemakers. All of which shows in his sublime Riesling, impressive Chardonnay and Otago’s very best Pinot Noir.

Matthew Jukes, Expertwine.com, UK. March 2006

2005 Felton Road Riesling
It is so beautifully judged, a delicate tri-partite balance between relatively high residual sugar (48 grams), high natural acidity and an alcohol level of just 9.0%. The end result is a wine of luscious citrus and tropical flavours, but with an almost floral lightness and precise, complementary acidity.

2004 Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 3
This is the New Zealand Pinot Noir standard to which all others must aspire. A mono-clonal wine that comes from a single block of 15-20 year old vines – the eponymous Block 3, it is tank fermented followed by thirteen months in French oak of which 55% is new. This has lovely savoury depths of red fruit, with a suppleness, complexity and sheer class that no other NZ Pinot can quite match.

2003 Felton Road Pinot Noir *****
This is a luscious Cromwell style offering a complex mix of cranberry and cherry fruit characters intermingled with interesting dried tarragon herbal notes, with more than enough fruit and structure to carry it into a ripe old age.

2003 Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 5*****
Another super ripe Cromwell style, this one’s creamy smooth in the mouth and tastes of sweet, super-ripe pinot fruit. Block 5 is consistently about balance and polish and persistence of flavour.

Publishers Pick. Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 5 – 94 points
Reflective purple hue. Fresh scents of plum, cream and graphite. This tightly wound Pinot slowly opens to juicy flavours of plum, cherry and minerals. A slight earthiness, coupled with new oak, linger in the finish. This Pinot is all about fruit and structure, and displays great ageing potential.

Felton Road Pinot Noir Central Otago Block 3 2004 - 90 points
Felton Road's Pinots are among the most collectible
in New Zealand. This one is bright and lively, with a sweet pomegranate note weaving through the polished blackberry and cherry flavors, lingering on the smooth finish. Balanced, with fine acidity. Drink now through 2012.-H.S.

Felton Road Pinot Noir Central Otago Block 5 2004 - 90 points
Lithe and distinctly spicy, the 2004 is a bit tart but fleshy with cinnamon-scented berry and balsam aromas and flavors that just don't quit. Not for all tastes, but a wine of real distinction. Best from 2008 through 2012.-H.S.

Felton Road
2 and a half stars (also achieved only by Stonyridge and Craggy Range) "This is the producer of New Zealand's greatest pinot noir and a stunning medium sweet riesling. Other labels include Cornish Point (good value, easy drinking drystone pinot). The difference between Felton's top performing Block 3 and Block 5 pinots has more to do with the clones than the soil. These vineyards are organic/biodynamic in part but are not certified as such".

I now get to sample Felton Road's range and that of its other label, Cornish Point. Remarkably elegant and stylish, the Pinot Noirs are ripe and silky with subtle tannins; the gently-oaked Chardonnays are refined and well-balanced, while the Rieslings could have come from the Mosel itself.

Felton Road’s Pinot Noir Block 3 - 94 points
“Felton Road’s Block 3 vines are the same age as the Block 5 parcel but for some reason this plot has a more earthy, spicy, attractive quality when it is young. A little less tight, a little more chocolate-cherry and more spice on the nose and the palate. Soft, suave, juicy eminently drinkable, but with complexity and as good as it gets in New World pinot. It’s worth looking for as scarce as it is in Canada. It's bottled under screw cap.” (AG)

Bannockburn is the jewel in Central Otago’s crown. If someone asks me hoe to pick a good Central Otago Pinot Noir I say: “Choose a wine from Bannockburn”. Not every Bannockburn wine is great, but the area has a higher hit-rate than other districts in our most southerly wine region. Every wine district needs a hero and Bannockburn has its in Felton Road – one of New Zealand’s very few iconic wineries.

Central Otago Pinot Noir – Top 12

2004 Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 3 - 94 points
This celebrated single-vineyard wine has such a fine grained texture and so many subtle flavours that it can sometimes be unfairly overtaken by bolder wines in blind tastings. It has power, but very refined power that is best assessed on its lingering finish. The wine exhibits an array of red and black cherry flavours together with a hint of coffee and exotic dried herbs.

2004 Felton Road Pinot Noir - 93 points
Although it lacks the single-vineyard status of Block 3, this wine certainly measures up in quality terms. If anything, the flavours are more intense, although it arguably lacks the complexity of its big brother. Sophisticated pinot that deserves its cult status.

2004Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 5 18 ½ + ()
Bannockburn, Central Otago,New Zealand: 14.5% $56 [screwcap winery only probably not filtered]
Attractive full pinot noir ruby, nearly as dark as the straight Felton Pinot. Bouquet combines marvellous pinot florals ranging from boronia to violets and deepest red roses, with obvious black cherry fruit, and very fragrant oak with just a hint of nutmeg. On palate the oak is a little assertive at this early stage, but the black cherry fruit is long and succulent, yet crisp as well. I get the impression the acids are little higher on these 2004 pinots from Felton, relative to the 2003 vintage, but I do not have them alongside. Block 5 seems to be fractionally the least acid of the three, or perhaps it is just the richest. I like it the most, despite the lamentably high alcohol, but have to say there is not much in it. It should be a good cellar wine, and as the oak softens, with the volume of bouquet it already shows, it should become as exciting as the 1999 is now, or more so. Cellar 5 – 15 years. GK 11/05

2004Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 3 18 ½ ()
Bannockburn, Central Otago,New Zealand: 14% $56 [screwcap winery only not filtered]
Good pinot noir ruby, the lightest of the three Feltons. This Felton shares the wonderful florals of the other two, but in a way it seems both lighter (buddleia more than boronia) and yet more fragrant. Below there is wonderful cherry fruit, but here not quite as dark, with some red cherries in the black. Palate is classic pinot, lighter in flavour than the other two, but in a way seemingly sweeter, longer and richer. Oak is milder here than on the Block 5 – perhaps a lesser percentage of new. The truth probably is, that each time one tastes these three lovely wines, on one occasion one will appeal the most, and on the next another. All three will cellar beautifully, this one for 5 – 12 years. GK 11/05

2004Felton Road Pinot Noir18 + ()
Bannockburn, Central Otago, New Zealand: 14% $45 [screwcap $40 @ winery]
Attractive full pinot ruby, fractionally the deepest of the three Felton pinots. These Feltons were assessed in a rigorously blind tasting of 21 New Zealand pinots. When the top three wines turn out to be from the same maker, that tells you several things. The straight Felton Pinot might not be quite as complex as the Block 5, due to less oak input, but as a consequence one can see the superb varietal and floral qualities of the fruit even more clearly: violets, boronia, buddleia. Of all New Zealand pinot noir producers, Blair Walter at Felton seems to have most clearly grasped the notion that great pinot is about sweet enticing floral components on bouquet, to be followed up by crisp aromatic and tactile red or preferably black cherry fruit. Oak must play a supporting role to these basics, and not dominate. This wine illustrates those factors to perfection. So buy the basic Felton for its great expression of ripe but not over-ripe pinot noir varietal quality, more vividly expressed than in the more complex Block 5. This wine is fractionally more acid than the two Block wines, which will augment its bouquet development in bottle, but detracts slightly from the palate. Cellar 5 – 10 years. This too should develop like the 1999 straight Felton, and will then compete with many a Cote de Nuits wine. GK 11/05