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I left my 2007 Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc on lees until the end of August, just to fill out the mouthfeel a little more. Then the wine was racked, cold stabilized (so you don’t get those natural crystals in the bottom of your glass) and sent to bottle. I have left them to settle down for a month and having tasted them recently and they are ready. OF course, time will further enhance the Pinot Noir and to some extent the Pinot Gris and the Sauvignon Blanc is made in a style where it does actually age well in to the next year or two.
My new releases are the 2006 Central Otago Pinot Noir, 2007 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, 2006 Marlborough Chardonnay and the 2007 Central Otago Pinot Gris.
Marlborough has had an incredible run of good harvests and each year, while different, continue to produce fruit that is a pleasure to work with. Central Otago has its challenges with the cold, but frost fighting has become all in a days work and I am lucky to have such symbiotic relationships with the growers. They put as much passion in to the growing of the fruit as I do with the winemaking and we hope that it shows in the wines.
It was interesting to make the first Pinot Gris under my label. I would get asked by buyers what style I was making and I had no idea until the fruit came. Then it just became a work in progress. I started off with some in old barrels, fermenting naturally while the remaining juice fermented in tank, but when that finished I decided to put that portion in old oak as well. I am using more and more old oak for my chardonnay and some aromatics, far preferring the influence that it has on wine in comparison to new. Not oak at all, but a gentle filling out of the palate, a subtle melding of flavours and dimensions.
I find it ironical that it was my somewhat tight budget that put me on this path.
Enjoy these new releases now and in the future.
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