Our Wines

Light green with an edge of bright yellow this wine is pungent and intense on the nose with dominant herbal and boxwood aromas combining with more atypical gooseberry and passionfuit. Vibrant and punchy the nose leads into a palate which is rich, full bodied and textural but still focused with abundant natural acidity to help carry the flavours. A light touch of oak is evident on the back palate with balance being the key to this wines long persistent and dry finish.

This wine is made using traditional old world techniques beginning with the crushing and destemming of the fruit upon arrival in the winery. A gentle press cycle brings out only the purest juice and this is carefully kept separate from other batches. Very rough settling of only overnight is carried out without the addition of enzymes or bentonite resulting in a high portion of solids being taken to barrel after 24 hours. The resulting 19 barrels were allowed to warm naturally over a few days and signs of fermentation are carefully monitored for. All barrels here fermented with natural or wild yeasts with each individual barrel undergoing a unique and characterful ferment. Relatively quick the ferments are allowed to get warm and finish easily with little intervention from the winery. Post ferment the wine undergoes extended lees ageing in the barrel with regular (twice weekly) stirring and topping carried out through winter. When judged to have a good blend of fruit and development from the barrels the wine is racked clean to a tank and filtered and bottled on the 22nd March 2011 with no finings.

In the 2010 vintage the Toka block on our Awatere valley vineyard was selected for this wine due to its unique ripeness profile and its low cropping, very intensely flavoured fruit. Grown predominantly on 2 canes Toka was lightly leaf plucked pre Christmas for a “dappled” light exposure of fruit, and trimmed regularly throughout the season. Very good growing conditions meant sprays were minimal throughout the season and the fruit was in very good condition upon harvest. Cropping at around 6 tonnes per hectare the grapes were picked on the 22nd April with a brix of 24.8, pH of 3.25 and a TA of 9.75.