2008 was a milestone vintage for Pinot Noir at Craggy Range. We have made excellent wines from each of our five diverse vineyard designated sites.

It was a warm and balanced season in Central Otago, where we have three sites, two of these in the warm wind blown glacial deposits and gold sluicings of Bannockburn and a third in the loess and quartz gravels of the Bendigo flats. We also experienced an outstanding season in Martinborough, home of our Te Muna Road Vineyard, and a fruitful and sufficiently energy filled season at the Otago Station Vineyard in the beautiful Waitaki Valley. 

This array of wines is very exciting. We believe part of the intrinsic value in good wine is that it represents a place, and what is so compelling about the wines from 2008 is that we can see the breadth of vineyard identity beginning to show.

From each of the vineyards we get a representation of place in style. Be it the silky and layered wines of Te Muna, the vitality and depth of Calvert, the restrained classic nature of Bannockburn Sluicings, the firm savoury profile of Zebra or the lithe effortless floral elegance of the Waitaki Valley. 

They each have something to offer, that is what is intriguing and compelling.

As for the hand of man in this equation - Pinot Noir winemaking is about understated bravery. It’s about letting the fruit become wine without cajoling or wrestling – the presence of mind to just stand back and marvel. 

We try to make the wines naturally, without winemaking artifact interfering. We try to let the wines find a natural equilibrium and, with time, density, structure and restraint, replace sweetness and immediacy.  

We feel that each of these wines is very tangibly, compositionally and stylistically linked to the ground it grew in, and the people that tended the vines.  

It is a pleasure to introduce this release of all five Craggy Range vineyard designated Pinot Noirs. 

Adrian Baker
Winemaker