Ata Rangi

Few names carry the weight in New Zealand that Ata Rangi does. In 1980 Clive Paton sold his dairy herd and planted Pinot Noir on a stony sheep paddock at the edge of Martinborough, a move most thought madness. It became one of the founding estates of the region, and one of the country’s greatest.

The name means “dawn sky”, or new beginning, in te reo Māori. Among the first vines were cuttings of the famed Abel clone, said to trace back to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and smuggled into the country in a gumboot. Those old vines still anchor the flagship Pinot Noir today.

Now farmed organically across the deep gravels of the Martinborough Terrace, and made with a light touch by Helen Masters, New Zealand Winemaker of the Year, the wines are textural, deep and seamlessly balanced. In 2010 the Pinot Noir was named a Grand Cru of New Zealand, an honour shared by almost no other.

From the conservation-minded Crimson to rare single-vineyard bottlings, this is benchmark Martinborough Pinot, and one of the Southern Hemisphere’s true icons.