This Pinot Gris shows ripe pear, apple and peach fruit characters on the nose. The palate has floral undertones with sweet nectarine fruit enhanced by some citrus undertones. The wine has wonderful depth and complexity along with an off dry finish. This is a fragrant Pinot Gris that will age well over the next 5 years.

At the start of the growing season conditions were dry with some isolated spring frost events. During flowering cooler temperature and changeable daytime weather led to a below-average set of berries. Warm days and settled weather followed, resulting in higher-than-average daily temperature. During vintage we had warm days, cool nights and minimal rain which allowed perfect conditions for the fruit to be picked at optimum ripeness. Although we had lower-than-average yield, the fruit that was there was of excellent quality.

The fruit for this wine was sourced from the Rapaura sub-region of Marlborough. The grapes were harvested at different maturity levels to add complexity of the finished wine. The pressed cloudy juice was fermented in stainless steel and old French oak barrels before being blended back together for a brief period of lees aging. Oxidative juice handling techniques were employed to minimise phenolic uptake.