Blank Canvas 'Escaroth Vineyard' Pinot Noir 2021
The Blank Canvas 'Escaroth Vineyard' Pinot Noir is a masterclass in site-specific terroir, driven by one of the sharpest palates in the global wine industry, Sophie Parker-Thomson MW, alongside her husband Matt. The Escaroth vineyard is a total anomaly for Marlborough: a steep, north-facing, dry-farmed clay slope in the Taylor Pass. This cuvée entirely rejects the simple, sweet fruit profile so often associated with commercial New Zealand Pinot Noir. By employing a courageous 50% whole-bunch fermentation, Sophie has crafted a wine of incredible tension and aromatic lift. It opens with a beguiling, wild perfume of crushed peony, dark violet, and pomegranate. On the palate, the fruit is pristine - crunchy red cherry and wild plum - but it is heavily overlaid with a fierce, earthy savouriness, smoked game, and a dusting of white pepper. Fermented with wild yeast and bottled unfined and unfiltered, it is framed by fine, muscular, needle-point tannins and a taut, saline acidity that drives a remarkably long, sophisticated finish. It is delicious now, but possesses the sheer structural integrity to evolve magnificently in the cellar over the next decade.
