"The best vintage ever!?!?!!" This year has been exceptional, marked by unique weather conditions and an outstanding harvest. Marlborough experienced a very dry winter followed by isolated spring frost events, leading to fewer bunches than usual. However, the quality of the fruit was outstanding. This season also saw record-breaking dryness and sunshine, with drought conditions declared in mid-March. Fortunately, timely rain in early March refreshed our vineyards, preventing berry shrivelling and ensuring a healthy crop. The warm, sunny days and smaller yields meant our harvest started about two weeks earlier than usual. We even completed our Sauvignon Blanc harvest earlier than ever before. Cooler nights helped maintain excellent acidity levels, and disease pressure was remarkably low, allowing for a smooth and organized...
Sweet as! Our 2018 Noble Riesling was named the Champion Sweet Wine at the New Zealand International Wine Show last Friday. Following on from our double trophy last year, we're absolutely thrilled about this recent win. Our sweetest winemaker, Cullen, accepted the award in style at the event in Auckland. A big congratulations to our fantastic team for their outstanding work! For those unfamiliar with this star of our collection, our 2018 Noble Riesling is a wine that's been aged to perfection. It showcases an awesome balance of honey and lemon with some beautiful florals on the nose. It gets a consistent 'WOW' at our cellar door and takes any dessert or cheese to the next level! We will be...
Vintage 2023 was a tricky growing season in Marlborough, with plenty of spring rains that decided to continue right into summer - giving us a nervy start to the season. Thankfully with the cooler nights and the optimal weather following each rainy event, we were then treated to near-perfect growing conditions for February, March and April. Just a hint of frost before harvest held off any disease and ensured us perfect brix and beautiful acidity across all our varieties. The dedicated, hands-on approach that the vineyard crew put into the Sugar Loaf vines, allowed us to harvest the fruit at optimum quality. The ‘go the extra mile’ really has paid off this year. Mother Nature also did her part in keeping the yields naturally low, producing fruit with great purity &...
