Villa Maria Marlborough Pinot Noir 2006

I picked this wine up fairly randomly at the local wine store. I've been reading some books, and I keep seeing how good and reasonably priced New Zealand wines can be, so I thought I should give it a shot. The store had 4 or 5 pinot noirs from NZ, and this one was priced in the middle, at $22.

The color is a standard pinot pale purple, quite nice to look at it.
Really nice nose, with ripe fruitiness of cherries and plums and some tart cranberry (very seasonal). There's also some smokiness in the background.

The taste is tart but not at all sour, and very pleasant. Sour cherries, a little cola taste. Really elegant. The word "zippy" comes to mind too.

We had this with pizza, which maybe pushed the wine a little too much to the tart side, but on its own and with the salad it was delicious. This is a beautiful wine. I went back to the wine store and bought a few more bottles, just to have on hand.

I actually mentioned this one in another post but there I thought it was from 2008. I asked at the wine store what they'd had from this producer and they said they only had 2006, so I must have been mistaken. As far as NZ wine goes, what they are really known for is sauvignon blanc, but that's not my favorite varietal. I've also heard that chardonnay from NZ can be amazing, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet.