Tatty Bogler is Forrest Wines' homage to the late Waitaki pioneer Howard Patterson and to the rugged, limestone-studded slopes of the Waitaki Valley in North Otago. Set inland from the Pacific coast and shaped by glacial gravels and limestone, Waitaki is one of New Zealand's coolest and most marginal climates for Pinot Noir, producing naturally low crops with striking acidity and fine mineral detail. Fruit is drawn from limestone and gravel soils that lend the wine its chalky structure and savoury edge. The 2022 season delivered small yields of taut, cool-climate fruit with cranberry and cherry-skin lift, thyme and wild-herb notes and the cool precision typical of the site.

Fruit was hand-harvested and fermented in small open-top batches, with a gentle pressing to keep tannins fine, before maturation in seasoned French oak barriques to add structure without overt oak flavour. Small-batch handling preserves the wine's lifted aromatics and linear acidity, while the older-barrique regime supports rather than masks the fruit. Bottled at around 13 per cent alcohol, the finished Pinot shows a deep plum hue, cherry-skin, cranberry and raspberry aromatics over thyme and wild herb, with baked rhubarb, damson plum and savoury spice on a palate framed by powdery tannins and taut, cool-climate acidity. It is a restrained, structured style built for the table.