Winemaking

Early harvested fruit from our Whenua Matua vineyard in Nelson was machine picked and transported to our winery in Marlborough – just over three hours away. This long transit period allows the colour and flavour found in the grape skins to be gently released into the juice before arriving at the winery.
Once at the winery the grapes are drained and pressed into a mix of old oak barrels and stainless steel tanks for fermentation.
The Ferment is carried out with selected yeast strains and is stopped with cooling when the residual sugar and natural acidity have reached the perfect balance. The resulting wine is allowed to settle before being stabilised and cross-flow filtered without fining.
Early bottling takes in early July allowing the wine to retain youthfulness and freshness.

Viticulture

This Pinot Noir Rosé is sourced entirely from our stunning Whenua Matua vineyard in the renowned Upper Moutere area of Nelson.
The 2016/2017 growing season in Nelson proved to be a challenging one for our vineyard team. The season began with cooler temperatures during flowering – impacting fruit set and resulting in low to moderate yields throughout the blocks. The cooler temperatures continued into the summer months, which also brought high than usual levels of precipitation to the region. Despite these challenges, clean fruit at ideal ripeness levels was achieved through meticulous vineyard management which through methods such as shoot thinning and leaf plucking allowed light and airflow into the canopy.
The resultant crop was machine harvested in late March – avoiding the cyclonic downpours that hit the country in early April.

Analysis

Vintage: 2017

Alcohol: 13.5%

pH: 3.37

T/A: 6.8 g/L

R.S: 4.6g/L