“Oh, wow! You brought a bottle of the Tohu ‘One’ Pinot Noir, I love that wine!” said my host.

“Actually, it’s not pronounced ‘One’,” I replied, “it’s pronounced ‘Oh-Neh’, as in the Maori word for soil or earth, as the vineyards sit on soils carried down from Mount Tapuae-o-Uenuku.”

“I see. Why don’t you sit next to Graham, he collects 19th century horse brasses, I’m sure you’ll get along well.”

This was our favourite Pinot Noir at the annual New Zealand trade tasting in London and, happily, it was far from the most expensive. It’s a really fabulous, single-vineyard Marlborough Pinot, but it feels more like a Central Otago expression, with its fuller body and its deep cherry and red plum fruit with gorgeous high tones of kola, sandalwood, blackcurrant pastilles, pomegranate molasses and candied orange rind. I can’t wait to drink it with slow-cooked beef brisket, especially the barbecued burnt ends. 12.5% alc. Drink now-2032.

Press Reviews:

Tamlyn Currin for JancisRobinson.com: “Fruit from a single vineyard called Whenua Awa Vineyard in the Awatere Valley. Hand-picked. Spontaneous fermentation. 13 months in French oak barrels. Unfined, unfiltered. If you tipped a spoon or two of Darjeeling tea leaves into a little tea pot, lifted it to your nose and breathed in deeply, then poured not-quite-boiling water over them, waited a little, lifted it to your nose and breathed in deeply, you’d be almost there. Put that lightly toasted slice of dark rye on your plate, lift it to your nose. Open the jar of homemade raspberry jam, smell it, spoon it on your toast. Pour your tea, no milk thanks. Tea-leaf tannins, tea leafiness; raspberries and redcurrants, tart and sweet; oak-toast and crunch. Such evocative aromas. Fine-boned but serious structure with tension rippling through the tannins. This would be beautiful with venison. Drink now-2031.” 17 points