Source: Winemaker

TASTING NOTE Imagine a summer fruit salad ripe golden peaches, honeydew melon, nectarines and passionfruit, with a generous splash of cassis and a sprinkling of lime zest this is a subtle, delicately aromatic, ripe interpretation of Marlborough sauvignon blanc. The palate is generous and textural, showing great concentration and finishing with a crisp, succulent finish.

VITICULTURE Fruit was sourced from various prime vineyard sites in Marlborough's Southern Valleys and the central Wairau Plains (specifically Woodbourne, Renwick and Rapaura). Soil types vary from the young alluvial soils of Rapaura and Renwick, which contain high proportions of New Zealand's ubiquitous greywacke river stones, to the older and denser clay-loams of the Southern Valleys. The majority of the vineyards were trained using the divided Scott Henry canopy management system, with the balance on a two- or three-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) trellis.

WINEMAKING Harvested largely by machine during cool (often cold) night-time conditions, the sauvignon blanc grapes were trucked to our winery in the Omaka Valley, where they were lightly pressed to yield a modest volume of high-quality juice. The juice was then cold-settled and racked prior to fermentation, primarily using cultured yeast in stainless steel for cool, slow fermentation. A portion of the juice was allowed to undergo spontaneous indigenous yeast fermentation in old oak barrels.

All individual vineyard batches were left on lees and kept separate until late July, when the blend was assembled. The wine was bottled in mid-August with alcohol 13.5%, pH 3.14 and acidity 6.8 g/l