Cloudy Bay first made Pinot Noir in 1989 and the winemaking team has been obsessed with the variety ever since. This year the second crop was harvested from the 'Barracks Vineyard', an elevated site in the Omaka Valley dedicated almost entirely to pinot. In the winery, the purpose-built pinot cellar allows the winemakers to handle as many as 40 unique parcels of wine from 25 different sites with the utmost precision and care. These are carefully blended to create a true expression of the variety, the vintage, and 'our place'. Cropped at very low levels from prime Marlborough vineyard sites, Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir is rich in regional fruit character. Typically it has an intensely varietal palate that reveals layers of dark red fruits such as plum, black cherry, cherry oak, savoury dried herbs.   It is long and complex, with anise and other spices, smoky hints, bacon fat and silky tannins.