Awards and Accolades

96 Points - Ray Jordan, Pinot Path
"Beautifully lifted aromatics. There is some nice spice and sour cherry, a hint of raspberry and sweet confectionery character. The palate has a deep lingering intensity with power and finesse. This is a classy wine of great poise and expression. There is a trace of minerality with schisty gravelly loam displaying a beautiful purity. This is from different vineyards in Central Otago, hence different soils with different rootstocks and clones adding to the complexity."

92 Points - Mike Bennie, Wine Front NZ
"Has some meatiness and ashy oak sniffs over dark berry and dark cherry fruit characters. Whiff of green herbs, some briar, pepper – good, deep perfume. Slides across the palate with some concentrated sweet berry fruit feel, almost jammy, but pinched with ashen tannins and finishes with good build of crushed slate mineral feel and lemony acidity. Powerful pinot noir, but finds harmony in fresh acidity and lithe texture. Bold statement pinot noir."

2013 Vintage: 96 Points - Tyson Stelzer
"There is a restrained elegance to Felton Road’s 2012s, an understated intensity of fragrance and spice framed in well-defined structure, making this one of the great vintages for the finest estate in New Zealand. The balanced ripeness and depth of flavour of the year allows the fruit to dissolve 28% inclusion of stems in the ferment, energising a gorgeous, pure and fragrant bouquet of red cherries, violets and subtle exotic spice. Delightfully seamless and poised, the palate is impeccably focused and floral, laced with intricate layers of exotic spice and dried herbs. Fine depth of mineral tannins underline a finish of outstanding poise and persistence."

From the Winery

Following an unusually wet and significantly warmer winter than usual, the heightened soil moisture and mild conditions gave rise to an early bud burst followed by even and rapid early season growth. October saw some sleepless nights for the vineyard team with low-lying snow keeping the threat of frost ever present. A mixture of good fortune and careful management of inter-row crops kept the threat at bay. After a warm and unseasonably calm and dry November, flowering and fruit set was early and occurred in excellent conditions.

Veraison also started early but some cooler weather in February meant it progressed slowly. This was advantageous as it helpedto delay the final ripening period from occurring in the usual heat we can experience in early to mid March Harvest began early on March 20 with stable and mild weather throughout and normal crop levels. Picking of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir was completed by April 8 with the Riesling finishing on April 14.

The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping with approximately 25% as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately long maceration on skins has extracted good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This wine was aged for 11 months in French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In accordance with our non-interventionalist approach to winemaking, this wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and was not fined or filtered.