Our first vintage was coined ‘the elusive stuff of dreams’ by UK wine writer Giles Kime. Intriguingly, the older vines create youthful expressiveness, combined with seductive silky complexity and dark fruit flavours from our vineyards across the Marlborough region. Oyster Bay Marlborough Pinot Noir is elegant cool climate Pinot Noir at its best. Fragrant, soft and flavourful with aromas of ripe cherries and sweet fruit tannins that provide structure and length.

Vineyard Locations

The Marlborough region, nestled at the tip of New Zealand’s South Island, enjoys an extended growing season that helps us to create our extraordinary cool climate Pinot Noir. From the first planting in 1973, Marlborough has matured to produce some of New Zealand’s best Pinot Noir. The combination of warm sunny days and cool nights make Marlborough’s climate ideal for growing the famously temperamental grape.

Our Marlborough Vineyard locations:

Wairau Valley and Awatere Valley, Marlborough

Winemaking Techniques

For Oyster Bay Pinot Noir, the fruit is picked from selected vineyard blocks to provide blending components and to add more complexity to the wine. The fruit is destemmed and crushed directly into a combination of open and closed top stainless steel fermentation tanks. Following pre-fermentation maceration, the must is inoculated with a range of pure yeast cultures. The open ferment is hand plunged multiple times a day and a small portion of the blend run off to complete fermentation in French oak barriques. After maceration, the wine is pressed off into tank and French oak barriques to complete malolactic fermentation. The wine is then matured for up to 12 months and racked prior to final blending. We’re proud to offer a unique, fruit-forward expression of New Zealand Pinot Noir.

Pinot Noir Characteristics

Enjoyed by wine lovers around the world, Oyster Bay Marlborough Pinot Noir expresses aromatic cherry, bright red berries and juicy black plum with a smooth and seductive texture.