What a difference a year makes, 2013 was full of long, sunny days, with sunshine hours well up on 2012. The beginning of the season saw cool temperatures delaying bud burst in late November, the sun came out, the easterlies dropped away and temperatures began to rise. The all-important period for flowering, December, was two degrees above the average which ensured almost perfect flowering and fruit set. With hours of sunshine and very little rain during the summer months, the fruit was able to ripen at it’s leisure with no threat of disease resulting in one of the best growing seasons in our memory.

The fruit for this wine was grown in two low cropping vineyards, Spring Creek and Kaituna both located in the Wairau Valley. These small vineyards are extremely unique as they are farmed with limited irrigation, creating small and intensely flavoured berries each year and a yield of 4t/h. In the winery the fruit was immediately de-stemmed and given a cold soak for 96 hours before being gently pressed. The resulting juice was fermented with a mix of cultured and wild yeast in open-top stainless steel fermenters.

After fermentation the wine was macerated on skins for 20 days until the balance between tannin and flavours profile was perfect. The wine was transferred into well seasoned French oak barrels where it matured on fermentation lees for 6 months before being racked into tank for blending and bottling on November 1st.