There are few wine regions as breathtakingly beautiful as New Zealand’s South Island. It should come as no surprise that from this astonishing landscape come some of the New World’s finest Pinot Noirs. The best we’ve tasted in recent history are those from Central Otago’s Burn Cottage—remarkably pure, lithe and lovely wines made by Ted Lemon, who is also responsible for the gorgeous, terroir-driven wines at California’s Littorai.

Burn Cottage’s vineyards are in a natural amphitheatre, located in a glacial valley that protects the vines from the elements. Biodynamic from the onset, the estate's central belief is to farm responsibly, acting more like an extension of the earth than an outside force. A wine cannot show its distinctive terroir if the land on which it’s grown is mistreated or treated without respect.

Before they were vineyards, Burn Cottage's plots were used to graze sheep. Stereotypically New Zealand! While there aren’t any sheep these days, biodiversity remains a cornerstone of the estate, and a good chunk of the land is a fully-functioning farm, with chickens, bees and olive trees dotting the terrain.

And the wines! Ted was, after all, the first American to run a Burgundian estate, so he knows his Pinot Noir. These are classical in nature, but with an easygoing spirit—a hallmark of New Zealand, its people and its wine.

Professional Reviews

What importer Skurnik Wines has to say about this wine...

100% Pinot Noir
Sourced from 40% Burn Cottage Vineyard, 34% from the Sauvage Vineyard and 26% from Sappa Vineyard, ranging from 5-23 years
Hand-harvested
Fermented for around 18 days with indigenous yeast, 5% whole bunch
Aged for 12 months in French oak (Damy, Mercurey & Sylvain cooperages), 20% new
Bottled unfiltered and unfined
Moonlight Race is named after a channel of water that passes through the Burn Cottage property; one of the hundreds of “races” which were created during the early years of European immigration to bring water down from the mountains