2025 Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir

Felton Road operates as the benchmark for Central Otago Pinot Noir, pairing obsessive farming with a completely hands-off approach in the cellar. Their Block 3 bottling is arguably the estate's most iconic release, backed by vines that have spent over three decades digging into the Bannockburn dirt.

The 2025 vintage threw a curveball with a severe katabatic frost in early November - the worst in twenty years. Luckily, the vines bounced back, and a long, dry summer slowed down ripening, allowing the fruit grown on Block 3's deep silt and calcareous soils to build serious concentration. They hand-harvested the block's three components over ten days in April, capturing that slow-burn complexity.

Everything's handled by gravity here. The fruit was gently destemmed straight into open-top fermenters without a single pump involved, retaining 25% whole clusters for structural grip. It fermented on wild yeast, rested for 13 months in 28% new French oak from artisan Burgundian coopers, and went to bottle completely unfined and unfiltered.

These 33-year-old vines deliver massive depth - think black cherry and roasted earth layered with wild thyme and a dusting of dark cocoa. It holds its weight steadily on the palate before finishing with a huge, structured wash of tannin. It's a masterclass in regional power, or as the winery puts it: "An object lesson in ‘Peacock’s Tail’."