Vavasour Pinot Noir

The coq (ahem, rooster) on the label is the Vavasour family crest. Above it says “1986” – which is the year Peter Vavasour first planted vines in Marlborough’s Awatere Valley.

But the Vavasours’ history with Marlborough goes waaay back to the 1890s when they first landed there. In fact if you really dust off the history books you’ll find the Vavasours trace their ancestry back to the Norman invasion of England. They reckon one Vavasour ancestor was a wine taster for William the Conqueror. Serve up some bad wine and the bastard will have your head!

This is the 2021 vintage Vavasour Pinot Noir and, like most of the wines under this label, it’s a class act. It took out a Gold medal at the NZ International Wine Show 2022 as well as a solid 91/100 score with Master of Wine Bob Campbell.

All made by an absolute legend winemaker Stu Marfell, the Champion Winemaker of Show at the NZ International Wine Show 2022. “It never surprises me to learn that the winemaker of a five-star wine comes from the region where the grapes were grown. So when I learned that Vavasour winemaker Stu Marfell was born and raised a few kilometres from the Vavasour winery in Marlborough’s Awatere Valley, it just made sense.”