Haere Ra 2023: Central Otago
Matt Connell's winemaking palette includes colours from across Central Otago, from Gibbston and Alexandra, to Bendigo and Bannockburn.
The event is hosted for wine media as a blind tasting in September every year by Central Otago Pinot Noir Limited, also known as COPNL. The day of the tasting this year was scheduled for Friday 11 September and the majority of the wines were from 2014 (40 wines in all), many of which have yet to be released. This year's spring tasting also featured 25 wines from 2013, six wines from 2012 and two from 2011.
Tasters have their individual preferences but the 2014 Rua Bannockburn Pinot Noir does winemaker Matt Connell a credit. In this writer's notes, it stood alongside big-name Central Otago Pinots, scoring as high as some of the region's best-known single vineyard wines, which are considered as classics.
