Felton Road, 'Bannockburn' Pinot Noir, 2025
Felton Road, 'Bannockburn' Pinot Noir, 2025
- 75cl
- 13.5%
- Red Still
- Pinot Noir
- Organic
- Biodynamic
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Optimal drinking window: 2027 - 2038
Est. delivery in Autumn, 2026
Felton Road's 'Bannockburn' Pinot Noir is the estate's calling card — a single-vineyard wine from one of Central Otago's most storied sub-regions, and the block from which Felton Road itself takes its identity. Bannockburn sits at altitude on ancient schist soils, and the wine reflects that setting with uncommon precision: dark-fruited, mineral, and structured in a way that sets it apart from the rounder, more immediately generous style you find elsewhere in Otago.
"A classic Felton Road nose of dark florals, rose and maybe violet, with cherry compote. Textural and rich on the first attack, with a fine line of berry leaves, raspberry or boysenberry, but right through the palate there is a clear sense of tension that prevents this from ever being fruit driven. The wine has a lovely persistence with fine and dusty tannins, leaving a line of pure fruit and petals, as it eventually fades. A classic Felton Road Bannockburn."
Winemaker's note
The 2025 vintage brings the usual Felton Road hallmarks — detail, focus, a restless energy — wrapped in fruit that is pure and vivid rather than opulent.
The Bannockburn vineyard sits at around 280 metres above sea level on the slopes above Lake Dunstan, where ancient Otago schist dominates the subsoil and breaks through in places as visible rock. These fractured, fast-draining schist soils force vines to dig deep and struggle productively, contributing to the wine's characteristic mineral tension and relatively lean fruit profile. The continental climate here is extreme by any measure — scorching summer days drop to near-freezing at night, and that diurnal range is the engine behind Bannockburn Pinot's freshness and structure. Wind from the Kawarau Gorge keeps yields honest and concentrates what remains on the vine.
Central Otago is the world's southernmost wine region and the only one in New Zealand with a true continental climate rather than a maritime one. It sits in the rain shadow of the Southern Alps in the South Island's interior, producing Pinot Noir of a distinctly different character to Marlborough or Martinborough — darker-fruited, more structured, with a mineral grip that reflects the region's schist and loess geology. Bannockburn is one of the warmer sub-regions within Central Otago, benefiting from a north-facing aspect and good heat accumulation, which allows Pinot Noir to achieve full phenolic ripeness while the altitude preserves acidity. There are no formal cru classifications here, but Bannockburn's reputation is as close to grand cru status as the New World gets.
The 2025 vintage in Central Otago is, at time of writing, the most recent harvest, and detailed analytical consensus is still forming. What we do know is that the region has been on a remarkable run of form through the early 2020s, and early producer reports from 2025 point to a season that largely continued that momentum, with a warm, dry ripening period helping growers achieve good phenolic maturity across the board. Central Otago lives and dies by its continental extremes, and vintages that manage to thread the needle between its fierce UV intensity and the cool nights of the Cromwell Basin tend to produce wines of real definition and freshness alongside ripe fruit.
Pinot Noir, as ever, is the one to watch. If early indications hold, 2025 should offer wines with the kind of taut red fruit and structural clarity the region does better than almost anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere. Expect them to reward patience rather than demand it. Most will drink well from 2027 onwards, with the best sites and producers likely carrying comfortably until 2032 or beyond. We'd watch this space closely as more bottles start arriving.
OUR GROWERS
Felton Road
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