2017 Quartz Reef Bendigo Estate Single Vineyard Pinot Noir Central Otago New Zealand 750 ml

This is the third vintage of Quartz Reef’s fabulous single-vineyard Pinot Noir we’ve sold, and it’s a knockout, lavishly perfumed with black raspberry, plum, and black cherry. The tasting team couldn’t wait to get their hands on it, with vivid memories of the swaggering 2013 and the epic length of the 2015—both best-sellers among Wine Access members.

This 2017 release not only lived up to the hype, winning outstanding marks from every team member, but set a new benchmark, drinking like a New World version of a Corton Grand Cru: sensual, opulent, and finishing with superb energy and tension. James Suckling described it as “powerful” with “focused structure” when adorning it with a 94-point review, lauding the “succulent, lithe and juicy core” of this iconic New Zealand Pinot.

We’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on this ever since we first tasted it back in September with owner and winemaker Rudi Bauer, a Kiwi legend. 

Central Otago is a land of extremes, a place where forbidding wintry mountains loom over endless sun-soaked fields. The seasons are sharply defined: Summer highs flirt with 90 degrees before the mercury plunges at nightfall, often dipping below 50.  

That dramatic diurnal temperature shift above the deepest quartz deposit in New Zealand helps explain both the lavish wild-berry concentration and electrifying acid backbone of the Quartz Reef Pinot Noir Bendigo Vineyard—one of the most extraordinary Pinot Noirs to come out of New Zealand.  

In 1996, Rudi Bauer, Trevor Scott, and John Perriam purchased this breathtaking property, eventually planting 74 acres to vines. It wasn’t long before the partners became enchanted by biodynamics, the rigorous farming protocol practiced by Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in Burgundy.

Bauer eschews the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides, instead replenishing the soil each year with compost-and-herbal-tea concoctions prepared at the “Nerve Centre” on the lower vineyard. Pinot Noir roots spider deep into the quartz-laden substrata, quenching their thirst on underground water reserves and shrugging off the dry summer heat. 

The setting is magical. The climate is extreme. And as we learned while taking this bottle out for a spin with steak au poivre at the West Village’s Tartine, Quartz Reef’s Bendigo Vineyard Pinot Noir can give the juiciest, lushest Pinots of Burgundy a run for their money—especially for $35.