Winemaking

Grapes from our Whenua Matua vineyard in Nelson were handpicked before being transported to our winery in Marlborough. Once at the winery grapes were gently destemmed and left on skins for 24 hours before being pressed – allowing the juice to gain flavour and phenolic structure from the skins. Once pressed the juice was left to settle before bright, clear juice was racked into a stainless steel tanks for fermentation. The ferment was carried out at cool temperatures with yeast that was carefully selected to naturally enhance the aromatic qualities of the Grüner Veltliner fruit. After fermentation was complete the wine was allowed to age on yeast lees, gaining added structure and completely. After a month of maturation on lees the wine was racked and stabilised before being filtered without fining, ready for bottling in mid-August.

Viticulture

The grapes for this wine were grown exclusively on our Whenua Matua vineyard in the renowned Upper Moutere area of Nelson. Characterised by heavy clay soils on gently rolling north facing hills, this vineyard has proven to be naturally suited to aromatic grape varietals, such as Grüner Veltliner. The 2013/2014 growing season in Nelson started with a wet spring creating high soil water levels, which proved to be ideal for the warm and dry summer that followed. Rapid growth and ideal flowering conditions lead to heavy crop levels that were controlled by comprehensive shoot and bunch thinning throughout the season. Even ripening within the block saw clean, ripe bunches ready for harvesting on the 11 th April – our first producing intake of this variety from the Whenua Matua vineyard.

Analysis

Vintage: 2014

Alcohol: 13.5%

pH: 3.11

T/A: 5.2g/L

R.S: 1.5g/L