Accolades

2014 Vintage:
GOLD - New Zealand International Wine Show
93 Points, Bob Campbell MW

About the Winery

Lake Hayes wines reflect the land they're grown on, with a style of winemaking that allows the fruit to express itself from vintage to vintage. The grapes for Lake Hayes come from some of the best growing areas in Central Otago. Lake Hayes wines are made in an early drinking style with a fresh, fruity appeal. They are young and lively, yet balanced and sophisticated.

Destemmed and cold soaked at 10°C for five days. Fermented using selected yeast strains with a top temperature of 32°C. The wine was pressed off the grape skins when the tannins were deemed in balance. In order to keep the lift in the primary fruit characteristics we deliberately kept a proportion of the wine out of oak for maturation.

Starting with bud burst in October our `phonology' chart indicated a spurt of growth, more advanced than ever in our ten years of recording. Flowering time at Christmas was mild and gentle with some rain before and after, but dry over the critical few days allowing a high degree of pollination to set a superb crop. Ripening was just as fine, hardly any rain and just enough breeze to keep the bunches dry. Harvesting by hand started two weeks earlier than the previous year.