Felton Road

Here at Stone, Vine & Sun we enjoy a long and friendly relationship with Nigel Greening, the English founder and owner of Felton Road. The first vintage we bought was 2004. Since then Nigel and his team, in particular long-term winemaker Blair Walter, have established Felton Road as indisputably New Zealand’s finest Pinot Noir producer, and amongst the best in the world outside Burgundy.

This is an estate where the mature vines are meticulously farmed. Nigel introduced organic and bio-dynamic practice in 2002 (certified by Demeter since 2010), and is focussed on sustainability, for example minimizing use of energy (his wine now comes in lightish bottles) and chemical inputs.  At the same time he doesn’t romantically look backwards: he employs electric vehicles and is a pioneer of the use of large drones for spraying.

Whilst the Pinots here have always been superb, we think they have become even finer in recent years: since the 2012 harvest Nigel’s philosophy has been to pick early, “as early as you dare” for freshness and vigour. Secondly, since the 2021 vintage the use of new or newish oak has been moderated: this has certainly made the wines more enjoyable young without compromising ageing potential. All bottled under screwcap, these wines keep perfectly for years.

A word about the single vineyard Pinots - Cornish Point, Calvert and now Macmuir - versus the estates’s principal wine, named Bannockburn after the local village in Central Otago.  Bannockburn is actually made from the fruit gown in those vineyards, plus Elms.  The barrels which are selected for the single vineyard bottlings are chosen for their closeness to Nigel’s sense of what that particular vineyard’s wine should taste like: so for Cornish Point, what Nigel calls “the party animal of the range”, he is looking for “Cornish Pointy-ness” and only the barrels which fit that ideal are bottled under the Cornish Point label: the rest goes into the blend for Bannockburn.