Full bottle 1,399 g. No back label with details when I tasted it but I emailed Hiro Kusuda to ask whether this wine had been chaptalised. He replied: ' Yes, I had four PN ferment batches in 2023 and the first and second were chaptalised, the first for [adding] 1% and the second for 0.3%. The last two were good enough. Most of the people on the Martinborough Terrace were finished picking PN when I started harvesting my third batch, as far as I could see driving around town. No special effort to preserve/enhance colour at all.' Very pale ruby. I'm quite surprised by how little purple tinge there is in this young wine! But it certainly smells of intriguing earthy Pinot! Really pretty and beautifully balanced. No surprise that it's made by a Japanese. Great precision! No excess sweetness but this was clearly not the ripest vintage. Ah yes, this was the Cyclone Gabrielle year! Delicate, would be the way to describe this wine. It was probably a nightmare to harvest. Still a little chew on the end. And some persistence. A precious jewel? It tastes as though it should be cupped in both hands, tremulously. Full marks for effort, which is how I have scored it. (JR)