Imagine the ultimate upside-down cake, with aromas of peaches and cream, vanilla pod and a sprinkling of demerara sugar. A richly scented bouquet with notes of Turkish delight and creaming soda adding further complexity. The lively palate is anchored by white nectarine, with succulent stone fruit flavours and a seam of minerality providing drive to the long, off-dry finish. Fragrant, generous and undoubtedly moreish.

he fruit was grown in three vineyards, two in the central Wairau Plains and one in the upper Omaka Valley. Near Renwick, the River Block is planted with clones 52 and 53 and the Restaurant Block contains plots of clone 457 and Lincoln Berry Smith, both of which are on young alluvial soils containing high proportions of greywacke river stones. In the upper Omaka, Falveys vineyard is planted to clone GM2-15 and is grown on gravelly, clay-loam soils. All vines are trained on a two-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) trellis.

Hand-picking commenced in Restaurant Block on 15 March, concluding with
Falveys on 4 April. The fruit was harvested at high ripeness levels and whole-bunch pressed using low maceration press cycles. The resulting juice was cold-settled, then racked to fermentation vessels. Most of the juice went through an indigenous yeast fermentation in old French oak barriques and the balance was fermented in stainless steel using cultured yeast. Towards the end of fermentation all the wine was transferred to stainless steel tanks, where fermentation was stopped, retaining 9.2 g/l residual sugar. Once blended, the wine was returned to old barrels, where it remained on yeast lees for a further six months. The wine was bottled on 28 January 2025, with alcohol 14.1%, pH 3.33 and acidity 5.4 g/l