Central Otago

Widely hailed as potentially the greatest vintage New Zealand has ever produced. James Suckling called individual Central Otago wines "perhaps the greatest NZ Pinot Noir I have ever tasted." Exceptional balance, depth, and complexity across all sub-regions.

An El Nino vintage that produced wines with excellent acidity and finer structure than 2022, showing more brooding complexity. Dry and warm early-to-mid season with precipitation arriving later, allowing extended harvest.

Another strong vintage benefiting from warm spells. Stylistically more forward and fruit-driven than 2023, with sweeter fruit expression.

A La Nina vintage with more moderate heat and higher rainfall than recent years. Central Otago still achieved good Pinot Noir ripeness despite the cooler pattern.

Central Otago experienced its coolest growing season on record. Expect ripe wines with good acidities despite the cool year.

Quality universally lauded, with many Central Otago producers calling it their best-ever vintage. Outstanding balance and aging potential.

The hottest vintage on record. Central Otago fared better than Marlborough, but the heat produced wines with lower acidity than average.

Well received across the region, producing wines of real quality with good structure. Balanced and age-worthy, with a lot of complexity developing in the best examples.

A tougher season after several good years, with frost, unsettled weather, and powdery mildew presenting challenges. Good wines were still produced by top estates, but not at the level of 2013 or 2014.

Unusual consistency across all sub-regions. Fruit in exceptional condition with excellent flavours and balance.

Wines of real purity, elegance, and length. Some winemakers went on record calling it the best vintage ever for Central Otago at that time.

Bright, pure Pinot Noir in an elegant rather than blockbuster style, with surprising underlying power. Solid quality throughout the region.

One of the most powerful and concentrated vintages on record. February was the driest ever recorded.

An almost devastating vintage where snow fell every month of the growing season. Painfully low yields, but many berries came in seedless, enabling ultra-concentrated wines from innate fruit character.

Warmer conditions led to higher extraction and more structural fruit. Many producers made bigger, more generous wines.

The hot vintage that changed Central Otago's reputation. Young vines responded to the warmth with exuberant fruit expression, producing ripe, fruit-forward, approachable wines that brought international attention to the region.