Our Wines

Bright vivid pink and brilliantly clear, this wine looks as fresh and pure as the lifted, fruity nose of strawberries, raspberries and toffee hints at. On the palate the wine is big and mouthfilling with red berries and fruit salad combining with more confectionary notes to give some natural sweetness yet still balanced by a fine acid backbone. Off-dry the finish is very persistent with pure red fruits lingering long in the mouth.

The grapes for this wine were crushed and destemmed into small open top fermenters and chilled cold to stop ferment occurring. After 24 hours between 5 and 15% of the now lightly pink juice was drained off (saignee) to a small enclosed stainless steel tank. Two different batches were combined over two days into one small tank which was then settled very clear before being racked, warmed and inoculated with a specific pinot noir yeast, rc212. Fermentation is carried out long and cool like a white wine until the right balance of alcohol, residual sugar and acidity is found towards the end. Stopped with temperature control and sulphur and tank was immediately prepped for bottling with no fining carried out. Within a month the wine was finished, filtered and being bottled early to retain natural co2 and the fresh fruit flavours.

The pinot noir clones used in making this wine are a combination of 777, 115 and Abel, all grown on the heavy clay soils of our Upper Moutere vineyard known as Whenua Matua. Our vines are 6 years old and with lots of care and attention provide us with very concentrated and clean fruit. Shoot thinning, hand leaf plucking and rigorous disease control help to provide very good fruit for us. 2011 was a challenging vintage in Nelson with significant rainfall affecting vineyards that were susceptible. The fruit for this wine was harvested on the 24th and 25th of March before the rains and didn’t suffer as a result. From the sub blocks of Waewae and Tarakona we had a range of brix from 24.8 to 24.9 and pH’s of 3.49 and 3.42.