Ata Rangi: Grand Cru of New Zealand Now Exclusively at K&L

We’re thrilled to announce that Ata Rangi, one of New Zealand’s most iconic producers, is now available exclusively in the U.S. at K&L. Ata Rangi is the leading producer from Martinborough, the home of New Zealand’s best Pinot Noir. Over the last twenty years, they are largely responsible for shaping the world’s appreciation of New Zealand Pinot Noir and demonstrating that this tiny country can produce Pinot that stands with the best anywhere in the world.

Ata Rangi was founded by Clive Patton in 1980, when the village of Martinborough was little more than a sleepy hamlet surrounded by sheep paddocks. Over the next forty years Patton built Ata Rangi into a global benchmark for Pinot Noir through a relentless focus on quality and uncompromising winemaking. Today, the winery is still family owned and operated. Harvesting grapes from a handful of small vineyards on the Martinborough terrace, winemaker Helen Masters follows the philosophy that great wine is made in the vineyard, and translates their wines from grape to glass with minimal intervention in order to showcase the terroir of Martinborough.

In 2010, Ata Rangi and Felton Road were named, “Tipuranga Teitei o Aotearoa,” or Grand Cru of New Zealand, and they are still the only two producers in the country who have received this distinction. In 2019, winemaker Helen Masters was awarded New Zealand Winemaker of the Year by Gourmet Traveler, and Ata Rangi sits atop New Zealand wine critic Bob Campbell’s top lists nearly every year.

Ata Rangi produces both an entry-level Pinot Noir, “Crimson” made from younger estate vines as well as a tiny production of single-vineyard Pinot Noir from their McCrone Vineyard. But the star of the show is their flagship Martinborough Pinot Noir. Made from the oldest and most revered parcels of fruit from mature vines planted from the Abel clone, a cutting of Domaine Romanée-Conti smuggled out of France in the 1970s. 

We’re so grateful to be working directly with the folks at Ata Rangi, and are thrilled with the 2017 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir from Martiborough. We can’t wait to share these wines with you.

- Thomas Smith