From the Winery

Our Marlborough Pinot Gris comes from one vineyard located just outside the township of Ward in the Awatere Valley. It is owned and managed by Pam and Polly Francis.

The fruit machine-picked to bin so maceration was minimised. A portion of this juice was barrel-fermented in older French oak to give greater weight, though ensuring that wood is not evident on the nose. The balance of the wine was fermented cool to retain the fruit characters from our vineyards. The final blend this year was made solely from free-run juice, as we feel it gives a more elegant and subtle wine, especially with Pinot Gris, that has quite ‘grey’ coloured skins.

There are a number of distinguishing characteristics about this vintage, with the first being that it was one of our latest starts to date. Temperatures were not particularly low but the sunshine hours, especially in March had been a bit lower which slowed the process of photosynthesis.

This year we harvested at slightly lower Brix than usual to make sure that the fruit was clean and aromatic rather than leaving it out to go through the tail ends of both Cyclone Debbie and Cook. Because of this something like 85% of the harvest came in over a relatively short period so there were a few long days and nights. The ferments were super aromatic and it was a year that gentle fruit handling and lower crop levels were appreciated, and one that really showed the value of having our own winery.