While the company has invested enormously in its Central Otago Pinot Noir project, I continue to think the Marlborough wine is better, at least for the moment. The 2016 Pinot Noir is a silky, medium-bodied wine, loaded with raspberry and strawberry fruit. Hints of cola and spice add dimension and linger on the finish. It's 15% whole cluster and sees about one-third new French oak, but neither of those elements come across as dominating, they're subtler, mostly structural, components.

The 2016 Pinot Noir has more sophistication and depth on the nose than the 2015, offering blackberry, raspberry and wild strawberry scents and a touch of damp moss and rose petal. The edgy, taut palate is medium-bodied with a fine bead of acidity, but at the moment, it does not quite deliver the complexity that I was expecting after the impressive aromatics. Give it another year in bottle because, like the 2015, it needs more Pinot expression and more personality to come through.

This wine is polished and dense, offering notes of ripe cherry, ground pepper, mushroom and subtle flowers. Texturally, the mouthfeel is on the syrupy side, with the cherry fruit sitting heavily amidst a grip of spicy, chalky tannins. Drink until 2027.

Blackberry and raspberry flavors are plump and ripe, showing a cream soda edge and details of clove that linger on the finish, with dense, velvety tannins. Drink now. 800 cases imported.