The Martinborough Terrace vineyards

We have four vineyards on the highly-acclaimed Martinborough Terrace. They are planted at the highest point of the terrace with the deepest gravels. The free-draining structure coupled with the area’s low rainfall, means we can stress manage the vines to achieve richness and fruit intensity in the wines.

Draper or Home Vineyard
The terrace is at its deepest and stoniest at its eastern end, the site of our Draper or home vineyard. This is where you’ll find our oldest vines (in fact, the first vines planted in Martinborough were planted here). The vineyard – home to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc varieties – is named after TK founder, Tom Draper.

The East Plain Vineyard
This 32-hectare vineyard is split up into six blocks. Two recently planted blocks, Martins Road and Todds Road, are producing excellent quality Pinot Noir on young vines, and already contribute to our Runholder Pinot Noir.

The Angle Block
This is a small block on the home block which consistently delivers the core fruit for our Reserve Chardonnay. It crops low and delivers fruit of wonderful intensity with white peach, melon and citric characters.

The McLeod Vineyard
This small block consistently delivers Pinot Noir of the highest quality and is managed to contribute to the John Martin blend. The fruiting wire height is only 600mm above the ground (normal height around 700mm) and we believe this has improved the quality of grapes harvested.

The Sutherland Vineyard
The Sutherland vineyard is a more recent planting, first cropped in 2005. We believe this block has the potential to deliver exceptional fruit of John Martin quality.

Springrock
At an altitude of 100m, and with a north-south row orientation, it has excellent exposure to the morning sun due to the east sloping nature of the natural fan. This ensures a long ripening period with harvests often two weeks after the home vineyards. The result is strong characteristics coming through the fruit which show blackberry and distinctive white pepper with higher acidity while tannins remain soft. We grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay at Springrock. Think of Springrock when you enjoy our Reserve Chardonnay and Estate, Runholder and John Martin Pinot Noir. You can be sure they are made with care and respect for the place from which they came.

Ruakokoputuna
Our 46-hectare Ruakokoputuna vineyard is located in a narrow valley south of Martinborough. The climate is distinctly different here. The hills shade the valley creating cooler temperatures that delay bud burst, flowering and fruit set in spring and ripening and harvest in autumn. In summer though, the hills trap the heat. This results in the highest summer temperatures of all our vineyards and greater extremes of day and night temperatures over the ripening period. The relatively high altitude (180 metres above sea level) also contributes to the cool climate characteristics of the Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir varieties we grow here. You can taste the classic cool climate fruit intensity of Ruakokoputuna when you savour our Sauvignon Blanc and our Estate, Runholder or John Martin Pinot Noir.