By Rob Pickard
The Marketing team at Bibendum is going to be a sad place in a few weeks, as Trade Marketing’s James Mackenzie is off to live in New Zealand and take up the position of Brand Manager for Huia. Starting a new life in sunny Marlborough after 5 long years at Bibendum, we thought we would honour his move with a wine of the week spot for his new employers and one of our favourite producers.
This week the majority of us have been working very hard aboard the Bibendum Tastemaster at Imbibe Live, and one of the stars of the show has been the awesome Pinot Noir from Huia. Huia is a small operation based in Marlborough, who create delicious, biodynamic wines and all in small quantities, so there’s not much to go around!
Owned and run by Claire and Mike Allen all the grapes are biodynamically grown, and from 2012 onwards all their wines will also be certified organic. Plus last year Huia were officially awarded Carbon Neutral status by the CaroNZero programme. Obviously fans of making wine in a more natural way and respecting the vineyard and its surrounding, we would go so far as to say Huia are one of the finest biodynamic producers in the Southern hemisphere, creating some outstanding wines. Their Sauvignon and Blanc de Blancs are both fantastic.
Their Pinot Noir is a brilliant example of elegant Kiwi Pinot, offering up seriously smooth, rich red berry fruits, alongside lots of smoke and spice. All the grapes here are handpicked from two sites, one in Marlborough’s Rapaura sub region and the other on the upper terraces of the Brancott Valley. Once picked the grapes spend eleven months in French oak before being bottled. What really stands out with this Pinot is the balance Claire and Mike have created, with extremely well integrated oak and silky tannins. A fantastic food wine with its elegant structure and fresh acidity.
Check out a few previous Huia posts to feature here on B Times -
MANA: Natural Winemaking in Marlborough, New Zealand
The last day of picking at Huia
Tags: Huia, New Zealand Wine, pinot noir, vivid, wine of the week
