Central Otago
Among the world's southernmost wine regions — and a Pinot Noir specialist.
Central Otago, in the mountains of New Zealand's South Island, is the country's only wine region with a truly continental climate: hot, dry summers, frosty winters and some of the widest daily temperature swings of any wine region. Gold miners planted the first vines in the 1860s, but the modern industry dates from the 1980s. Pinot Noir now covers roughly 80% of the vineyard and has become the region's signature: vivid, dark-cherried and spicy, with fresh acidity. Frost is a constant danger, and growers use wind machines and sprinklers to protect the vines in spring.
Grapes grown here 4
What the region makes
Dark cherry, plum and spice — fuller than Marlborough's.
Aromatic, textured whites.
Worth knowing
Central Otago sits around 45° south, among the most southerly wine regions on earth.
Its first vines were planted during the gold rush of the 1860s.
Try this region if you like richer, darker Pinot Noir.
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