The 2009, which is currently found in some private wine stores and restaurants in Vancouver, offers creamy tropical fruit, some toast and honeyed weight on the nose. Rounded on the palate it offers ripe fruit and toasty flavours highlighted with tree fruit. A clean wine with the oak contact showing through.

(18.5-/20) Has a full, light straw-yellow colour and a full, broadly expressed bouquet of savoury yellow stonefruits along with flinty lees complexities. Off-dry, this is full and weighty, with flavours of stonefruits, pears and honey, along with a little alcohol warmth, on a rounded, unctuous textured palate. The wine is now beginning to show its potential.

Generous minerality is what strikes me first about this wine followed by golden delicious apple, a hint of honeysuckle, pear skin and a lemon citrus core. Just dry then immediately full on the palate. Flavours of white peach and white nectarine emerge to dominate the fruit profile followed by hints of lemon citrus and apple. This is a very more-ish edged wine that I find very appealing.

" This 2009 wine from resurgent Akarua on the Cairnmuir Rd side of Bannockburn still shows plenty of youthful bounce. Pear, stonefruit and mealy flavours come through; the texture is lean and crisp. A bright, engaging wine to accompany a semi soft cheese and quince paste".

Cuisine Magazine, March 2011

“Smoothly fragrant pear and melon fruits on the nose here, some creamy nuances, melons and lightly spiced apricots. The palate’s big...with richness and sweetness, honey and pears, and some grilled nuts to close.”

“The 2009 Pinot Gris gives a good intensity of ripe white peach aromas with some fennel and coriander seed spicy notes. With medium-high acid off-set by a touch of sweetness (9 grams per liter), this silken textured wine has a medium body and long finish. Drink it now to 2013.”

Wine Orbit

Your Ultimate New Zealand Wine Review

Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, September 2010

Akarua Pinot Gris 2009 Central Otago, 93 Points,  5 Stars

This is an impressively luscious Pinot Gris displaying peach, pear and floral characters on the nose. The palate is full and generously flavoured showing appealing sweetness (9 g/l), smooth texture and perfectly balanced acidity. The wine shows excellent mid palate weight and mouthfeel, often lacking in many Pinot Gris. Fabulously delicious. At its best: now to 2013. 13.5% Screw cap. www.akarua.com. Aug 2010.

“At its best the variety can make seductively voluptuous but fresh specimens, like this Central Otago stunner. It’s a richly textured off-dry wine with notes of ripe spiced apple and custard, counterpoised by fresh citrus.”