Bob Campbell’s top 20 New Zealand Pinot Noirs

More intense with a greater range of flavours than Greystone’s (consistently attractive) regular Pinot Noir. Plum, dark cherry, leather, spice/anise, wood smoke and toasty flavours. Complex wine with a great, mouthfilling and silken-smooth texture.

Powerful and scented in a restrained, elegant style. Pure, perfumed wine with a finegrained texture and very lengthy finish. It is approachable now but will repay decanting for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Gorgeous summer days and Martinborough's typically cool nights ensured great ripeness and aromatics and despite a bit of rain just before harvest diluting a bit of intensity, this is still a classic Pinot vintage. The alcohol sticks out a little at the moment, but the Ata Rangi Pinot Noir 2011's ripe cherry fruit flavour is fresh, pure and concentrated with a pretty violet lift.

I found this wine hard to read when first poured, but it expanded in the glass to reveal a Pinot Noir of great power and purity with a rapier-like focus and an incredibly lengthy finish.

New Zealand’s most expensive Pinot. It’s a barrel selection made from the oldest Pinot vines in Martinborough and possibly New Zealand. Dense, rich and complex, revealing nicely layered flavours including plum, chocolate, wood smoke, old leather and truffle. Bone dry but certainly not an austere wine with an impressively lingering finish. 1,800 bottles made.