From the Winery

Grapes were sourced from two of our Wairau Valley vineyards to make this wine. The Summer Valley vineyard lies in a rain shadow under the lee of the Wither Hills, it is a warm north facing block with fine loess soils and is always the first block to be harvested. This vineyard is close planted with various Dijon clones of Pinot Noir (115, 667, 777) and also the famed Abel DRC clone (a clone that has an interesting background as to its source). The other vineyard that supplied grapes for this wine is our Delta Hill vineyard, a small hillside vineyard close planted at over double the normal NZ vine density. The Delta Hill is one of the highest altitude vineyards in Marlborough and is cooler than the valley floor. Planted with eight different clones of Pinot Noir on various low vigour rootstock resulting in small berries, low yield per vine and concentrated flavours. The soil comprises low vigour loess with some gravel and clay components.

The fruit was all hand picked in perfect condition on 4th April 2013. Hand picked into small bins the grapes were immediately transported to the winery and on arrival were further sorted and then transferred directly into a de-stemmer/crusher and into small open topped fermenters. We then gave the must a cold soak for three days, with regular hand plunging, this aids extraction of colour and tannins. The must was then warmed in order to start fermentation, and over this period hand plunging continued to break up the cap. After fermentation the wine was pressed off into French 225 litre barriques, primarily one to four year old barriques, with 10% new. The wine was then aged for 9 months, with regular scrutiny and any topping up of barrels that was needed. The wine was fined with egg whites for clarity, prior to blending the various clones, a light filtration and bottling. The wine was stored for six months prior to release.