Visit our cellar door, meet our viticulturist, taste
and discuss our wines with our winemaker and the way that 155 million
year old rock, clay soils, salt sea breezes and the island climate help
to fashion our unique environment.
Our Terroir
Aspect and Weather
Our small family run vineyard was established in 2002 on a gentle rise
60m above the sea facing North and West into Church Bay (Hangaura). The
marine weather patterns play a major role in our vineyard.
The Geology
Our grapevines lie over the eroded root of an ancient, severely folded
mountain ridge composed of massive sequences of deep core greywacke
rocks, fine graded sandstones, mudstones and siltstones with
interbedded magnesium nodules and thin bands of siliceous cherts.
The Soil
The acidic, clay-based soil derived from these rocks is
impoverished and phosphate-poor, with low organic matter, but rich in
magnesium from the nodules. To make life more difficult for both plants
and planters, there is a hard, almost impervious layer of grey volcanic
ash erupted from nearby Rangitoto. Pieces of Kauri
gum under the vines are reminders of the giant trees which once
leached important elements from the soil of this island.
Viticulture and Sustainability
We are fully accredited members of
Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) which requires annual
auditing for sustainability of all our viticultural practices including
soil and canopy management, pest control, fertilisers and spray
programme. We adhere to the NZ Winegrowers Export Wine Grape spray
schedule and where possible use organic or biological controls rather than chemical sprays.
Our Vines
As great wines can only be made from great grapes, our aim is to
produce fruit of exceptional quality and optimal phenolic maturity. To
achieve this we use intensive canopy management, including precise cane
pruning, controlled bud counts/hectare, selective shoot and leaf
thinning and restricted cropping with low yields.
Hand planting commenced in 2002, with two clones of Syrah (MS and
Chave) the Italian red variety Montepulciano, Pinot Gris (Pinot grigio
in Italy) and two new clones of Cabernet franc from Lyon. 2008 will be
the fourth vintage for our Syrah, the third for the Cabernet franc and
the first for Montepulciano. All our fruit is selectively hand-picked
as early as possible in the morning into small bins and destemmed and
gently crushed on site within an hour of harvest.
....And Wines
We are aiming for the highest quality, hand-crafted, single
vineyard, varietal wines fermented and hand-plunged in small (900
litre) batches, seasoned and matured with French and American oak,
bottled on estate, and bottle-aged before release.
Our first vintage in 2005 was favoured by prolonged dry and sunny
weather and fruit of exceptional quality. The 2005 Syrah from just
three year old vines was well structured with liquorice, white pepper,
smooth tannins and a good balance of French oak. This first ever
release was in January 2008 and it was sold out by April 2009. The
2006 Syrah is lighter, but with rich fruit and good body and will be
released early 2009.
The Cabernet franc 2006 was packed with raspberry fruit, violets,
pencil shavings and dark chocolate and sold out in April 2009. The very
similar 2007 Cabernet Franc is now selling through our cellar door and
availability is limited.
The 2008 Montepulciano is selling fast. The very popular, dry and minerally whole bunch pressed 2008 Pinot Grigio has sold out as has the 2009 Pinot Grigio which was a dry, fruit-packed,
peach-coloured blush wine. New releases of the Syrah Rose and the Pinot Grigio Blush wines are scheduled for September-October 2010. Orders are already arriving!