The exciting region of Central Otago is an area of dramatic and outstanding natural beauty  that lent itself perfectly to a large proportion of the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is also home to a highly progressive wine industry,  bursting with young and ambitious winemakers.

Geographically Otago sits two thirds of the way down the South Island, spreading eastwards from the picturesque lakeside town of Queenstown. Crucially, it lies the same distance south of the equator that Burgundy lies to the north, and the warm days and cool evenings provide great potential for making serious Pinot Noirs.Central Otago is made up of a series of sub wine regions (seven in total), which each possess their own individual micro-climate. Winery is based in the Cromwell district on the eastern side of Lake Dunstan. It is owned by Jan and Tom Pinckney and totals 23 hectares. Currently, almost all of their crop is sold to Peregrine Winery, but a very small amount of the best juice has been held back in recent vintages for the Northburn label. Plans for the future are ambitious and whilst the current UK allocation of Pinot Noir totals a mere 150 cases this is significantly more than the 30 we shipped of the 2005 .We have also seen the arrival of our allocation of the delicious but sadly even more scarce 2007 Pinot Gris.