Momo Pinot Noir New Zealand 2024

Michael Seresin was already an established cinematographer, with credits including Midnight Express, when he bought land in Marlborough's Wairau Valley in the early 1990s and founded Seresin Estate in 1992, one of the first wineries in New Zealand to farm organically. He kept working in film for another two decades, shooting Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the Bourne films along the way. Momo, meaning "offspring" in te reo Māori, is Seresin's second label, built from the same organic and biodynamic farming, Demeter-certified, but sourced here from the Raupo vineyard in the Omaka Valley, planted in the mid-1990s on mixed alluvial silt, gravel, and clay soils. The grapes are destemmed and fermented on indigenous yeast in small open-top vessels, hand-plunged twice a day for three to four weeks, then carried through natural malolactic fermentation and six months of aging before blending and bottling. Concentrated and dense for its youth but still elegant, it runs on dark cherry and ripe plum, supple and silky through the palate. Beautifully framed, no special effects needed.