Expert summary:

The diversity of New Zealand Pinot Noir shone through, with elegant and robust, accessible and structured wines all scoring highly from both 2013 and 2014

Bob Campbell MW is the Decanter World Wine Awards Regional Chair for New Zealand JuDGInG neW ZeALAnD Pinot noir from half a dozen different regions and as many different vintages poses a similar challenge to judging various breeds, ages and sexes of dogs at Crufts. It seems impossibly complex, but both involve using an established set of criteria as an objective measure. In the case of wine, judges look for flavour intensity or power, complexity, balance and length of flavour. They consider texture as well as flavour profile and other factors to help them arrive at a score and allow them to describe each wine’s character.

The list of top wines can often reveal any suggestion of stylistic bias. Do the judges favour youthful or mature wines? Is there a dominant vintage or region? Do blockbuster wines get the tick or is elegance preferred? In this Decanter panel tasting I thought the seven Outstanding wines showed no particular bias except perhaps that five were from the generally excellent 2013 vintage, despite the fact that 2014 appears to have dominated total entries. I think the judges got it right in terms of vintage endorsement. Wines from four different regions were rated Outstanding: Marlborough, Martinborough and Canterbury had two wines each while Central Otago produced the tasting’s top-scorer.

The leading group included the pure and elegant Mount Brown as well as the more robust (and in my view pleasingly rustic) Pegasus Bay with many shades in between. Contrast Lowburn Ferry’s accessible Home Block with Giesen’s more structured Clayvin and the judges get full marks from me for being open minded and endorsing top wines in a number of different styles. Their selection clearly demonstrates the diversity of new Zealand Pinot noir.

Inevitably with such a big class of wines, there were a few surprises. Some of my favourites that earned an admittedly respectable Recommended status include the excellent Ata Rangi 2014, the Burgundy lookalike Bell Hill 2013, Craggy Range’s Aroha 2014 and one of Central Otago’s best buys, Grasshopper Rock’s 2014. I was even more shocked to see that the stylish Burn Cottage 2014, fruit-focused Dog Point 2014 and escarpment’s powerful Kupe 2014 had been rated a relatively modest Commended. It’s tough at the top!

‘The judges get full marks for endorsing top wines in a number of different styles’