"Light straw in colour with aromas of white peach, tinned pears and freshly-baked apple pie. This is a dry wine but with a soft and luscious mouthfeel, nice weight and a touch of acidity on the finish that provides lovely balance. This wine sits very high on the drinkability scale!
A blend of our Waihopai Valley vineyard (70%) and the adjacent Barnsley Block. 2/15 clone, cane-pruned, shoot-thinned followed by successive fruit thinning to reduce crop level and ensure uniformity of ripeness. Soil is windblown loess over a clay pan. The clay soils play an important part by contributing volume and mouthfeel to the wine.
2018 was a relatively warm season that meant we picked early, harvesting both blocks on the 26th of March. The grapes were gently pressed and most of the free-run juice was inoculated with cultured yeast in tank. A small portion was fermented with wild yeasts (11%) while the pressings were fermented with wild yeasts in old French barriques (5%). Post-ferment, the wine was left to rest on lees for several months before the free-run and pressing portions were blended, left to marry and then bottled here at the winery".