It never surprises me to learn that the winemaker of a five-star wine comes from the region where the grapes were grown. So when I learned that Vavasour winemaker Stu Marfell was born and raised a few kilometres from the Vavasour winery in Marlborough’s Awatere Valley, it just made sense. To grow up in the Awatere is to have the intense winds either at your back or in your face, to know that hot summer cloudless days are followed by cold summer nights and it means you’ve had the area’s renowned sedimentary greywacke soil under your fingernails more than once. In short, it means you know this place. In Stu’s case it also means he knows how to make great wine from what grows there.

This top wine is a blend of pinot noir grapes from the Vavasour Home Block, Favourite and McBride’s Vineyards in the Awatere valley sub region of Marlborough. Made using traditional Burgundian hand- plunging techniques during fermentation, it then spends ten months in French oak before bottling.

The results speak for themselves, with this wine soaring ahead of the others to take this year’s top spot. A bright, medium ruby red in the glass, this youthful pinot abounds with pungent rich spice, cherries and raspberries on the nose and just a touch of reduction which serves to add complexity. The palate is medium weighted and juicy, teeming with fruit sweetness and with well-managed tannins matched with impressive acid.