Pinot Noir Our New Obsession

“They don’t call [pinot noir] the heartbreak grape for nothing … [but it] is the only grape that generates such enthusiasm,” actor and winemaker Sam Neill said at the Pinot Noir NZ 2013 four-day expo in late January. “People are obsessive about it, it just does things to people and it’s difficult to explain why,” Neill said. The Wellington-event aimed to show New Zealand also produces world-class examples of the red varietal. Neill’s Two Paddocks in Central Otago, the southernmost wine-producing region in the world, opened in 1993. Pinot noir is now New Zealand’s second largest wine export, with volumes almost tripling to 10.6 million litres between 2006 and 2012 amid growing international interest.