At a BBQ tonight. Not fantastic weather. By chance there was a 2004 Central Otago Pinot Noir Mt Maud. A real contrast to last night's wine. This was fermented onion and rhubarb in the mouth masked by a burnt rhubarb nose. The saving grace was that the aftertaste morphed into a nice nectarine type flavour. Not really what you expect from a Pinot Noir, but interesting.
The Mt Maude 2004 is probably all Wanaka fruit. Wanaka is much colder than the Cromwell Basin. So while both areas were hit by frosts that year, the Cromwell Basin fruit had more nitrogen available to it so the reduction was not as great.
Moral - a limited amount of reduction can be a useful component in a great wine, too much can ruin.
I marked tonight's wine 12/20. The night before for would be an 18/20.
