For Ata Rangi, 2024 was a welcome relief, and in fact for anyone farming in Martinborough. The year before had been abysmal – there were none of the usual top tier 2023 Pinot Noirs – everything was put into Crimson. So there was a sense of gratitude once they settled into growing the fruit for what would become the 2024 wines. No tricky decisions had to be made, and there was even a cooler spell during harvest that meant they could choose to pick at leisure. Today we get to taste the fruit of that labour, with a complete line up.
The only wine we’re trying that is not from 2024, is the new Ata Rangi Chenin Blanc 2025. The previous amount of Chenin vines they did have – four rows in the Walnut Ridge vineyard – didn’t warrant a bottling, so had routinely been merged into whites. But they now have access to 0.6 hectare from the Redbank Vineyard on Te Muna Road… and a new white wine. Made in a dry style, with the winemaking kept as simple as possible and using older, larger format oak barrels. It is very dry, and clean – with a Chardonnay-like perfume of apple, elderflower, cucumber and white peach. A salty, prickly acidity awaits in the palate, with more varietal characters emerging – the honey and the lemon peel. Well-made. It’s not usually a varietal that excites me, but this was delicious.
They’ve been making Pinot Gris here since 1988. Helen reminds us that great Pinot Gris is one of the best white wines for ageing in the cellar. Not that I need reminding. It’s a story I tell every week it seems. Their style has changed, but, being influenced by the great wines of Alsace, they have never been afraid of botrytis in the wine. In 2024 there’s not a hint of this – the Ata Rangi Pinot Gris 2024 is bone dry.
Helen also tells us that you have to pick off the numbers – the fruit tastes of next to nothing off the vine (even when its ready). If it starts to taste of something, you’ve left it too late and lost the acidity.
Similarly, the wine needs to be made – to be built. Again large format oak plays a part. A lovely, enticing nose, with signature pear, ginger and lemon oil aromas. You have to have texture, and it is here – waxy and generous, but lifted by a zesty acidity.
I’m really looking forward to the two Chardonnays. The first, Ata Rangi Pōtiki Chardonnay 2024, is using many young vines after re-configuration in the vineyards – including the original Craighall vineyard – since 2016. As Helen introduces this wine, she makes an interesting point that many people would be able to identify and describe the difference between regional styles of Pinot Noir through New Zealand – but there isn’t such a definition for the various wine growing region’s Chardonnay.
So, she is really focussed on showing the region here, and dialling back any winemaking that might mask that. No battonage, for example. The expression is youthfully vibrant and quite fruit forward. First citrus, the riper, fleshy peach on the nose. A slim style though, with linear drive and a saline finish.
The Ata Rangi Masters Chardonnay 2024 is from Helen and Ben Masters vineyard around their property – 4km south of town. Planted to 80% Mendoza and 20% Clone 15 Chardonnay, the soils have a higher clay content which brings concentration, while the cooler aspect of the site lifts florals and acidity. The perfume is calm and very structured. Apple, almond, fennel, grapefruit, orange blossom and nettle. Tight and serious, with great energy and salty acidity flowing through the palate. Precise and driven, with a phenolic astringency, into a dry, fine finish of immense persistence.
A few years ago, Ata Rangi began to release wines as individual vineyard selection Pinot Noirs from the vineyards that always made up the classic Ata Rangi Pinot Noir. The first time I can recall tasting these is with the 2020 vintage four years ago. I wrote about it here > https://winefolio.co.nz/?p=8767. The Ata Rangi Kōtinga Pinot Noir 2024 is made from all Dijon clones (no Abel). A spiky, lighter fruit profile of cranberry, juniper, damson and cherry. Really zesty and primed with a tart acidity, it shows an edge of gravelly minerality. Peppery in the mid-palate, but lots of jazzy energy and drinks very well right now.
Ata Rangi Masters Pinot Noir 2024 is one that you really notice the whole bunch winemaking element. At 70% whole bunch, there’s lifted spice, floral and bright fruit. But, that clay in the soil shows into the palate, with a deeper richness building to the fruit. Still – this is not a weighty wine – pliant, with plenty of space to move mid-palate, and with a spicy, negroni-like orange peel note coming into its own at the tart, tight finish. Quite complex and layered. This is a triumph.
The Ata Rangi McCrone Pinot Noir 2024 continues the release from this vineyard, and its reputation as the ‘bigger wine’ from the Ata Rangi label. There’s a ferrous edge to the palate, and on the nose too. Bold, meaty and with more oak showing than in anything else. Whole bunch is still at 40%, so it is the warmer site, near town that must be steering the character. Ripe and generous, with rounded tannins, the fruit does gobble up that oak spice and finish on a harmonic note, with great length.
The wine that is a blend of the various vineyards is the most important. As Helen adds “this is the wine that goes around the world”. They can’t just strip out all of one vineyard, or clone, without upsetting the balance of it. Ata Rangi Pinot Noir 2024 may well be the best of the bunch. One of the best wines Helen has made there in over 20 vintages; but also the best wine we taste today? A sense of walking through a meadow – with sweet grasses, wildflowers, musk rose, sage and hay. elegant, layered and poised. A shuttered but well-weighted mid-palate, with a bright acidity and fine tannin – it just needs a lot of air at this stage. A smoky earthiness sidles across the back of the palate, with the warmth of baking spices of cinnamon and star anise in tow.
The last Pinot Noir is not released, and doesn’t yet have a label. Ata Rangi Abel Pinot Noir 2024 is an isolation of just the Abel clone fruit. It is an important, if complicated, story in New Zealand viticulture. Back in the day, you couldn’t just ring up the nursery and buy whatever plants you wanted – you took what little was available. And Clive Paton was a pioneer with this clone. Again, we are looking at 100% whole bunch winemaking, with aromas of white pepper, toasted spice in the ripe fruit. Very savoury but also a fleshiness to the fruit that strikes a European stance. Tightly structured and taut with youth, but has an interesting dynamic and balance. One to watch out for.
Of course, there is an Ata Rangi Célèbre 2024. It’s a wine they’ve made since Day 1, and see no reason to stop doing it. It is unusual, yes, for a Martinborough red bland to persist – but it is a lovely wine. Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Blueberry, damson and cassis fruit in the perfume, with eastern spices, liquorice and vanilla biscuits. Smooth, balm-like, and seamless. a grainy tannin gives enough structure, and the fruit is perfectly ripe and balanced in this dream vintage.
Many thanks to Onslow for the venue and spectacular platters, and to Ben Longhurst from Eurovintage for impeccable hosting.
