Cuisine Magazine Goes Wild Over Wild Earth

For immediate release: 22 October, 2009

Cuisine Magazine Goes Wild Over Wild Earth Pinot Noir

Cuisine Magazine has chosen Wild Earth Wines as the Top Pinot Noir for 2009 in New Zealand’s most prestigious wine tasting.

The 2007 vintage from this small Central Otago winery led a field of 244 Pinot Noirs to secure the top ranking in the magazine, published today.
It is a fitting tribute, as last year Wild Earth’s 2006 vintage was named Top Red Wine and Champion Pinot Noir in London at the world’s largest wine competition, the International Wine Challenge.

Described by the Cuisine wine judges as ‘the act that stopped the show’, Wild Earth’s 2007 Pinot Noir was given five stars by every judge in the first round of tasting, and ‘the applause grew with each encore’. In conclusion, the Cuisine tasting panel voted the Wild Earth Pinot Noir ‘a life affirming wine, if ever there was one’.

The Cuisine award comes hot on the heels of a top score by the man regarded as the most influential wine critic in the world, America’s Robert Parker. In the September edition of his highly respected Wine Advocate guide, he scored the same wine - Wild Earth’s 2007 Pinot Noir - at 92 points. Anything over 90 points is regarded as an outstanding wine.

Describing the 2007 vintage as ‘feminine and wily, elegant and refined’, Parker and his coterie of top wine critics are notoriously difficult to please. A high score in the Wine Advocate is one of the holy grails of winemaking, such is the influence of Parker on the buying habits of serious wine lovers around the globe.

The owners of Wild Earth, Quintin and Avril Quider, are delighted with the awards: “New Zealand is producing outstanding Pinot Noir, so to be named as the leading wine in Cuisine’s annual tasting is a huge compliment. Our vineyard and winemaking team put in an incredible effort each year, so this award is a testament to their skills and efforts. It’s another deserved win for Central Otago Pinot Noir.”

The Wild Earth Pinot Noir 2007 can be found in many leading restaurants and retailers nationally, as well as direct from the winery. www.wildearthwines.co.nz

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