"This has a very rich and fleshy feel with attractive, candied apples, limes and oranges, as well as honey and apricots. The palate has a succulent feel with supple, smooth and rich, ripe-fruit texture" James Suckling, Aug 2019

The 2018 Exiled has a residual sugar of 30 grams per litre and has exuberant aromas of apricot, ginger, manuka honey and citrus fruits. The palate is fresh and linear with more than a hint of decadence, but also it comes with a clean minerality towards the finish which is further enhanced by both fruit tannins and natural carbon dioxide retained from the fermentation creating the ultimate drinking experience. Drink now or drink later, either way it’s epic.

The Pinot gris in 2018 enjoyed a relatively hot summer and although there were intense periods of rainfall thanks to ex Tropical Cyclone Fehi and Gita the temperatures remained hot into the harvest months. For Pinot gris that mean ripe flavours but also pockets of Noble Botrytis that intensifies and enhances the aromatic qualities of Pinot gris, the latest pick was in the Gorse Laneway block at 39.5 brix. Pinot gris for the Exiled comes from the St Helena clone of Pinot gris and grown on both Waiheke and Ponui Islands.

The fruit for this wine was lightly crushed and pressed then settled in tank before being racked with light solids into tank for fermentation. A mixture of un inoculated and cultured yeast ferments are used with each vineyard fermenting slowly until the desired balance of acid, tannin and sugar is reached. The wines are then chilled to below zero to stop the fermentation before blending, the blend is held at low temperatures in the cellar until bottling to retain as much of the natural carbon dioxide as possible.