Burn Cottage 2020 Burn Cottage Vineyard Pinot Noir 750ml

The 2020 Pinot Noir Burn Cottage Vineyard is not a wine that I want to deconstruct into its components as it exemplifies balance, harmony and completeness, and I want to drink a lot of it. It is a wine that is the sum of its parts rather than its individual elements. It is young and can be approached now, but deserves bottle aging. It is full-bodied and suave but being from Central Otago - at the bottom of the earth next stop penguins - it has a sense of coolness and freshness, enlivening its entirety and retaining a sense of melodic direction among the mellow bass sections. There's a very small percentage of whole clusters (7%) that combine with the natural garrigue notes of Central Otago Pinot to provide herbal lift alongside pure cherry fruit and carefully judged oak.

Score: 97 points -- Rebecca Gibb, Vinous, 2023

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American-owned Burn Cottage is a 24-hectare estate in Pisa, Central Otago. (The Sauvage family also owns Koehler-Ruprecht in the Pfalz.) With Ted Lemon of Littorai as a consultant, the amphitheater-like site is farmed biodynamically. The emphasis is on Pinot Noir, although there's also a tiny amount of white wine produced (a blend of Grüner Veltliner and Riesling).