2023 Craggy Range Aroha Pinot Noir

95 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2023 Aroha Pinot Noir is so elegant and fine. Tasted alongside the Te Muna Road Pinot Noir from the 2024 vintage (both wines sourced from the same vineyard), this appears ethereal and delicate, with dried rose petals and caper brine. 2023 might have brought challenges due to the water and the cold temperatures, however none of the struggles are evident in this glass. What a gorgeous wine. It is saline and fresh, detailed and lingering, highly recommended. 12.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

94 POINTS

Emma Jenkins MW - Decanter

Lighter framed than usual but retains the complex layers of fruit, earth, spice and florals of its predecessors. Wild raspberry, strawberry and red plum mingle with graphite, dried herbs, allspice and violets on the nose while the palate is silken, fresh and juicy with fine, silty tannins and nice flow to the long, slightly sappy finish. A well-balanced wine with lovely fruit.

91 POINTS

Christina Pickard - Wine Enthusiast

This vintage of Aroha shows the cool, wet season via green peppercorn, minty chocolate and dried herbal notes that weave between the currant and blueberry fruit. It's quite tight—even austere—on the palate at the moment, lacking some plushness to make it ready-to-drink now. But it's not without elegance and finesse, it perhaps just needs time to unwind. Drink 2027—2033.

90 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

Aloha, Aroha. Sappy and red fruited with twists of gum leaf, seaweed, shiitake mushroom and cinnamon spice. It feels sour-sweet and pleasing in its way, a little crisp in its edges, a bright core generally, a freshness overall. Dusty spice lingers, a bit of piquant clove, that cinnamon and some cardamom going on. A sense of wateriness, some mushroomy notes finish. It’s not prosecuting its pedigree case well, but feels lithe and easy drinking.