Aerial view of Carrick Winery and restaurant in Bannockburn. Carrick Winery

Carrick Winery, sitting in the sun-soaked Cairnmuir Terraces of Bannockburn, Central Otago, has an established tradition of organic farming since 2008. The winery only hand harvests, using organic-certified fruit from its estate vineyards, employing wild fermentation and minimal intervention.

Now owned by Alison and Tony Cleland, the vineyard continues to develop and refine its portfolio. Rosie Menzies has been making the wine across three owners and one of her personal projects at Carrick is the development of the natural wine range, one of which started with the previous winemaker, Francis Hutt.

There are two new pinot noir releases in this range, which take it to the next level, eschewing any additions at all, including sulfur. This pair are always fascinating to revisit as they capture different elements of each vintage and have a track record for stability and developing well in bottle. Billet Doux was the first wine to emerge in this range, though the expression created initially by Francis in 2015 was from a different clone (Abel) and had a different label.

Today, Rosie makes it from a parcel called Arthur’s Vineyard, across Cairnmuir Road from the main vineyard. It is from clones 5, 6 and 13 planted on their own roots (not grafted to rootstocks) to explore the purest expression possible. Destemmed, hand-picked and sorted fruit is pressed after 22 days of maceration and aged for nine months in neutral oak barrels. The label is was initially a collaboration between Leonofsky and then partner Margarita Vovna. The current label is by artist and designer Elana Marie.

Pot de Fleur is an entirely different creature, coming from a plot in the home vineyard, entirely clone 115, growing on schist and sand. The hand-picked grapes are fermented with 100% whole bunches with no adjustments made at any stage.

First made in 2018, its name derives from the small, flower-pot shaped fermenters used for this wine. The first eight days of fermentation occur under a cloud of CO2 to encourage carbonic maceration; after that it receives a light daily punchdown until it finishes fermentation and is moved to neutral oak barrels for eight months ageing.

The Margarita Vovna label reflects the winemaking philosophy, including a reproduction of the texture of upcycled Guadalupe County ranchers flannel which Vovna used in the original artwork.

They could not be more different from each other: Billet Doux is dense, compact and even glossy with dark fruit and serious structure. Pot de Fleur is incredibly aromatic and expressive with a very fine spicy framework of tannin and intriguing flow across the palate. The pair would make a fascinating blind tasting.