WoTM - Marsden Estate Pinotage 2013

My Wine of the Month for January is Marsden Estate Pinotage 2013 made by Rod McIvor at his winery in the Bay of Islands at the north-east of New Zealand’s North Island.

Enjoying Marsden 'Bay of islands' Pinotage overlooking the Bay

  

Rod also makes wines for other vineyards, including Pinotage grown by Waitapu Estate, the most northerly vineyard in New Zealand.

Marsden Estate, founded in 1993 by Rod and Cindy McIvor,  takes its name from Samuel Marsden who came to New Zealand as an Anglican missionary and planted the first vineyard on the coast nearby.

We enjoyed Marsden Estate 2013 Pinotage first at the excellent restaurant under a canopy of vines overlooking a lake and vineyard, run by Cindy McIvor and we bought bottles to take away.

We had an escort on our walk along  Pinotage rows

A walk along Marsden’s 250 Pinotage vines showed healthy growth this year with ample bunches of small green berries.

“2013 was a great vintage,” Rod told me. “Everything was late and they cropped heavily, in contrast to 2012 which we didn’t pick.” 

Marsden Estate 2013 Pinotage has a sweet raspberry nose and soft gentle fruit flavours. There are soft tannins, though the wine spent 10 months in oak. The wine feels light bodied yet has 14% abv. It is closed with a DIAM cork. Later, in our apartment overlooking the Bay of Islands, we found it to be an excellent partner to take-away pizzas.

Marsden Estate

Pinotage 2013

Bay of Islands

Northland, New Zealand

14% abv

$32 NZD

Marsden Estate's vineyards