Blank Canvas Wines Settlement Vineyard Pinot Noir Marlborough 2020

Cameron Douglas MS  96 pts

A powerful and distinctive bouquet with a core complexity built around ripe red berry fruit, a natural savoury dried herb complexity, a gentle sweetness of oak and baking spice scents to match, there’s density and richness alongside power and finesse. A powerful youthful energy as the wine touches the palate transitioning smoothly through berry flavours, the savoury seam and textures from tannins and acidity. Delicious, youthful and full of pinosity. A lovely expression, complex and lengthy. Best drinking from 2022 through 2030+.

Bob Campbell MW  95 pts 

Intense, powerful, firmly-structured pinot noir from the Omaka Valley in the Southern Valleys subregion. The 50% whole-bunches in the ferment has contributed to the wine's tannic backbone, which is balanced by sweet fruit. Floral, dark cherry and dried herb flavours. A richly-textured wine with obvious cellaring potential.

James Suckling  92 pts

Attractive dried strawberries and sweet plums with some orange peel undertones. Medium-bodied with fine tannins and a rough silk textured finish. Succulent. Tangy too Sustainable. Drink now. Screw cap.

Robert Parker  90 pts

I like the Settlement Vineyard. It is a topographically varied place, with an assortment of varieties and clones servicing many different cuvees and producers. Here, the 2020 Settlement Vineyard Pinot Noir is sappy and spiced with star anise, sour red cherry, layers of sarsaparilla and freshly grated nutmeg. The acidity in the mouth is lively to the point of verging on tart, but it has energy and life, which I like. Nice wine! 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

Jancis Robinson  17/20 

Mid cherry red. A notably savoury aroma though no lack of dark and dark-red fruits lifted by a hint of perfumed sweetness, almost a floral note, highlighted by the whole-bunch component, which adds a herbal but not unripe quality which shows more on the day after opening. On the palate, this is a beauty, firmly structured but with extreme tannic finesse. That savoury character on the palate too, with just a hint of stems adding to the well-balanced freshness. Plenty of Southern Valleys character and power here, in an elegant style, very slightly chewy at this young stage but even so it’s hard to resist drinking it now even though it should age well. Just goes to show that Marlborough doesn’t have to make tutti-frutti Pinot.