New Zealand wine producer Blank Canvas has released a Pinot Noir believed to be the world's first made using the traditional Italian ‘appassimento’ technique.
Pinonui has been released globally on allocation with just 650 bottles produced. At NZ$180 per bottle, Blank Canvas co-owners Matt Thomson and Sophie Parker-Thomson MW say Pinonui is believed to be the highest-priced still wine ever released from Marlborough.
The name combines Pinot Noir with the Māori word ‘nui’, meaning ‘great’, ‘significant’ or ‘grand’, acknowledging both the wine's inspiration and its New Zealand provenance.
Appassimento is the centuries-old practice of drying grapes prior to fermentation that is most closely associated with Amarone and other great wines of Italy’s Veneto region, where winemaker Thomson has worked for 28 years.
“Having spent 34 years working harvests across Europe and New Zealand, I became intrigued by the idea of applying appassimento to Pinot Noir,” he says. “If Corvina, the principal grape of Amarone, is valued for its fragrance and aromatic complexity rather than sheer power, could the same technique reveal something distinctive in Pinot Noir?”
In 2025, they selected a small parcel of Dijon clone 777 Pinot Noir from a single vineyard in Marlborough's Southern Valleys. The hand-harvested fruit underwent a carefully managed drying period in Blank Canvas's historic riverside warehouse on the banks of the Ōpaoa River.
Thomson says the project revealed Marlborough's suitability for the technique, with the region's cool, dry conditions allowing the fruit to dry naturally and evenly while maintaining freshness and purity.
The fruit was fermented with 100% whole bunch and traditional foot-treading and the wine matured in two French oak barriques before being bottled unfined and unfiltered in July 2026.
Prior to release, Pinonui was presented privately in Verona to a small group of respected restaurateurs and oenologists closely associated with the appassimento tradition.
“What excites me most about Pinonui is its aromatic profile,” says Matt Thomson. "The florals are remarkably lifted and expressive. In some respects, they remind me more of Nebbiolo than Amarone, with that sense of perfume continuing to unfold in the glass.”
