I opened a bottle of a 2004 Central Otago Pinot Noir last night. It was a famous wine. It was rated early on as a great wine (a best NZ red) by a well known magazine. Everyone in the business tried it, and most disagreed with the review. It was a wine that showed too much reductive character. There was fruit there, and good oak handling, but everything was masked by a burnt rubber and forest floor character. I was one of those in the negative camp.
But hats off to the judges back in late 2005. This wine is great. So complex. Oak, lovely concentrated cherry, and still that reductive character, but only in the background. In France and New Zealand there are Pinot Noir makers who don't see reduction as the fault that others do. This 2004 shows why.
The good news is that I no longer regret having three more bottles in my cellar.
