The Martinborough region experienced a classic warm summer that extended through the autumn and harvest. This coupled with a very low cropping season has resulted in beautifully clean fruit, excellent flavour development and overall ‘balance’ in the grapes.
The critical March to May pre-harvest and harvest period were excellent with warm mild temperatures and very little rain. This ensured grapes had both good flavour ripeness and sugar levels, and were in excellent condition for harvest.
Fruit was harvested in the cool of the morning, allowing the individual ‘parcels’ of grapes to reach the winery in optimum condition. The use of gravity to move fruit and must has eliminated pumping, a significant benefit in the strive for quality.
Traditional fermentation in small fermenters with gentle plunging at six hourly intervals gave an excellent extraction of colour and tannins.
Maturation in oak barriques from a variety of French cooperages enhanced complexity and added tannin structure.
Blending of the individual clones (60% Abel and 10/5 with the balance new Dijon clones), vineyard sites and barrel treatments was done just prior to bottling. |