Vineyards
Grapes were sourced from three distinct Wairau Valley vineyards to make this wine. Two are company vineyards, being Cob Cottage and Summer Valley. The Summer Valley vineyard lies in a rain shadow under the lee of the Wither Hills, it is a warm block with fine loess soils and was the first block to be harvested. The Cob Cottage vineyard lies just below Summer Valley on heavier soils with gravel and clay components. Finally the Roughan-Lee vineyard, which is situated near the town of Renwick, alongside the banks of the Omaka river. The Roughan-Lee vineyard is comprised of stony, free draining soil of low natural fertility. The average yield over these three vineyards worked out at 2.5 tonnes per acre. Season 06/07
The growing season started of reasonably well, with earlier varieties such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir having a good fruit set/flowering, however December was quite cold, far below normal growing degree days, and this affected the flowering for Sauvignon Blanc. The fruit set for Sauvignon was very patchy indeed, with a much lower than expected crop potential and a lot of “hen and chicken” type fruit set. January 2007 also forgot that it was supposed to be summer, however in February we started to warm up and it also got very dry (total rainfall for February and March combined was 21mm!!). We then had a glorious period of fine warm weather lasting right through until the end of vintage. Our harvest started on 26 March in Summer Valley and concluded with the Roughan Lee vineyard on 5 April (a little earlier than the normal vintage). The Growing Degree Days for the growing season (July to April) were 1,309 compared to the long term average of 1,261 (due to the spell of warm weather from February onwards). Vinification
The fruit was immediately transported to the winery and on arrival transferred directly into the press. The hand picked grapes were given a very light and slow “champagne” style whole bunch press resulting in a low extraction of free run and lightly pressed juice.
This year a portion of the grapes were also machine harvested in the cool of the night and immediately pressed. All juice was then cold settled for 48 hours, then racked with an aromatic strain of yeast added. The bulk of the fermentation was carried out in stainless steel tanks and after fermentation remained in contact with the fine yeast lees prior to bottling. A very small portion of the juice was also barrel fermented and aged for a short period of time in new French oak 225 litre barriques prior to back blending with the main blend. Tasting Notes
Clear/pale straw. The nose exhibits intense lime, passionfruit and kiwifruit fruit characters.
On the palate, passionfruit, kiwifruit, pineapple and pear flavours dominate. These intense fruit characters are balanced with crisp vibrant acidity and a long richly textured finish.
A full bodied purist style of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc – Marlborough in a glass!! |
