Jordan McKay has a thing or two to say about New Zealand Pinot Noirs and does so over at Chow.com. According to McKay, some of the most exciting Pinots are coming out of NZ.

There are two reasons why Pinot from New Zealand can be especially wonderful. One is the marginality of the climate—the best wine tends to be made from grapes that are grown in places where they only just get ripe. Of course, this leaves little margin for error; a slightly-cooler-than-average year can be devastating. A couple of New Zealand’s top Pinot areas will have very small harvests this year because of frost problems.

The other reason for the upswing in Kiwi Pinot is the maturing of its winemakers. For years, New Zealand produced textbook wines; they were technically pure and clinically accurate, but never really interesting. That’s changed now—the winemakers have grown more worldly, more confident, and they’re employing techniques that make the wines more complex and interesting, such as using stems and indigenous yeast fermentations.

For my taste, some of the best Pinot Noirs come from British Columbia’s Okanagen Valley winery Nk’Mip.