Brancott 2011 Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) – Neither the pyrazine fest it once was (granted, I’m sure what’s going into this wine now bears less than no relation to what went into it in previous decades) nor the sweet, soft fruit of the double-oughts’ overreaction, instead this is straightforward and varietally correct, but sanded down (and some of the sandpaper remains, texturally) and pretty dull. It’ll do in a pinch, but I’d like that pinch to be a bucket of ice on a Marlborough Sounds beach somewhere, with maybe a cube of that ice in the paper cup from which I’m swigging this. (6/12)
brancott
Brancott flakes
Montana “Brancott” 2007 Pinot Grigio (North Island) – Quite sweet, and that’s very nearly the entirety of its character. (11/10)
T zones
Montana “Brancott” 2007 “T” Pinot Noir “Terraces” (Marlborough) – Red cherry, strawberry, raspberry. Simple fruit, but there’s not much else. Very light, with good balance. (3/09)
Big sky, little wine
Montana “Brancott” 2006 Pinot Noir “Reserve” (Marlborough) – Butter soup. Awful. (3/09)
High fiber bed
Montana “Brancott” 2008 Sauvignon Blanc “Reserve” (Marlborough) – Cedar, ripe yellow plum. Soft, with a pinched midpalate, then expands. Very long, turning more expressive as it lingers, with a bitter edge emergent. This is a very polished style, perhaps too obviously so. (3/09)
Go south young pinot
Montana “Brancott” 2007 Pinot Noir (South Island) – A wretched nose of rotting garbage and moldering stew makes it very, very hard to put this wine in my mouth. But I persevere. And the palate isn’t all that bad. A little strawberry, some red cherry, perhaps a bit of raspberry, light and relatively friendly, though edging towards unwelcome lozenge flavors. But ugh, that stench. (2/09)
Patutahi your shoelaces
Brancott 2005 Gewürztraminer Patutahi (Gisborne) – Vibrant fruit, flowers, spice, peach, and nuts, with a dry finish. It’s a little lighter than I’d like; gewürz of this intensity should have a little more heft. (2/08)