Twenty vintages of Ata Rangi Pinot Noir

Once upon a time, people used to say that vintage variation was less marked in the New World than in the Old. There are several generalisations here, not least the catch-all ‘Old World’ and ‘New World’, which is probably less useful than it was before widespread cross-pollination between the two Worlds.

The comment about vintage variation was perhaps founded on the ability of warmer wine regions such as Australia’s Barossa Valley or Chile’s Maipo region to ripen grapes reliably in most years – an achievement that was typically less common than it is now in some of Europe’s more marginal...