Blank Canvas Escaroth Pinot Noir 2017

Blank Canvas Escaroth Pinot Noir 2017

Escaroth is tucked away in the Southern Valley’s Taylor Pass in Marlborough. It produces a bewildering fragrance of peony and violets, red cherry and pomegranate overlaid with a smoky, earthy savouriness. It is a site that truly reflects vintage variation with this inaugural release displaying the perfume and delicacy of the year, whilst retaining its innate muscular tannin structure that ensures it will age even better than Keith Richards. The low-yielding, dry-farmed site gives intensity and enables the use of a high degree of whole-bunch fermentation, adding further complexity and structure. We feel the wine is ultimately befitting of the fire-breathing dragon that guards the vineyard.

Accolades Blank Canvas Escaroth Pinot Noir 2017

96 Points "Delicate, perfumed, floral and varietal. Aromas of light fruits of cherry and strawberry, a touch of plum, red apple skin and a quiet detailed savoury core. Complex and complete on the palate with flavours that reflect the nose. A quiet understated layer of oak soaks up the fruit easily allowing the subtle messages of Pinot Noir to survive and shine. Fine tannins, balanced acidity, a long and detailed finish. Please - give this wine time to speak to you - don’t disrupt it with food of any kind. Drink now and through 2025." 

95 Points “Dry-farmed, north facing slope in the Southern Valleys, 50% whole-clusters. Delicious pinot noir with violet, wild flowers, sweet dark cherry, raspberry and spicy oak flavours. An ethereal, silken texture is even more impressive than the wines appealing and complex aromatics. Dangerously accessible now. Drink 2019 - 2025.

"Here’s a wine showing total class and elegance and you should own it immediately because that’s you in a nutshell right? Grown by Andy and Kyna Laurie, in their dryfarmed, north-facing Taylor Pass vineyard (named after the fictional lake town where the elves in The Hobbit sourced their wine) it’s perfumed with red rose, spiced cherries and soft cocoa characters then bursts with plush, plucky red fruits in the mouth. Wild fermented then matured in low-toast French oak barriques, it’s a luscious, lithe pinot noir with a long life ahead of it (if you’re disciplined enough to keep some tucked away) It’s also succulent, juicy and delicious with duck." 

92 Points "Some riper fruit and spicy oak meld together neatly here with a vibrant palate that delivers attractively taut tannin. Fresh, red-cherry finish. Drink now. Screw cap." 

90 Points "Drawn from a dry-farmed vineyard in the Southern Valleys planted to Clones 115 and 777, the 2017 Escaroth Pinot Noir is the debut vintage. Made with 50% whole clusters and 35% new French oak, this medium-ruby wine boasts faint hints of roses and tomato leaves accenting more robust notes of cherry and pomegranate. It's medium-bodied and silky in texture, with a strong, wiry structure and lingering dusty tannins on the finish. It should be reasonably long-lived for a Marlborough Pinot Noir, evolving well over the next decade." Joe Czerwinksi, Robert Parker Wine Advocate 17/4/2020