• Subtle French oak
• Pastry & apple custard
• Stone fruit & citrus
• Intricate & textural

"This unusually elegant, complex and ageworthy sauvignon blanc was fermented with indigenous yeasts in old French barriques…a complex, still youthful bouquet, leading into a delicious, multi-layered wine, sweet-fruited and tightly structured, with highly impressive depth, complexity and harmony" Michael Cooper

"Retaining a healthy pale-yellow lustre. Loads of smoky charm, a measured dose of sulfides, toasty oak and lemon rind. A lovely wine. While concentrated and pure, there's a subtlety to it that takes it to a better place. Terrific winemaking" Nick Stock, Real Review

"Fermented in barrel using indigenous yeasts and transferred out of oak before the following harvest, with a further eight months on lees in tank. The lees, struck flint and subtle oak influence sit nicely alongside bright, herbal-dominant Sauvignon Blanc characters" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review

"Very complex and quite different style with plenty of reductive, flinty funk and toasted-lime zest, as well as clotted cream and passion fruit. The palate has a rich and fluid feel with plush, smoothly fleshy build and a sweeping, round finish" James Suckling, Jamessuckling.com

A sweet-scented fusion of fragrant summer fruit and pastry shop perfume, peaches and nectarines, apple custard and lime meringues – all mingled with a dill-like herbal quality and a faint hint of wood smoke. The palate is fleshy and brimming with stone fruit and citrus, finishing crisp and juicy with a long, flinty dryness. Fermented entirely with naturally occurring yeast, this is an alternative style of Sauvignon Blanc that is both intricate and textural.

Fruit was sourced from various vineyard sites in the Southern Valleys and the central Wairau Plains, specifically in Woodbourne, Renwick and Rapaura. Soil types vary from the young alluvial deposits of Rapaura and Renwick, which contain high proportions of greywacke river stones, to the older and denser clay-loams of the Southern Valleys. A high percentage of the vineyards were trained using the divided Scott Henry canopy management system, with the balance on two- or three-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning).

Some vineyards were harvested by machine and others by hand, all into half-tonne bins, which were tipped directly into tank presses. The grapes were pressed lightly and the resulting juice was cold-settled prior to racking into mostly old French oak barriques. The juice was allowed to undergo spontaneous indigenous yeast fermentation, the tail end of which continued for well over six months. The wine had occasional lees stirring and approximately two-thirds underwent malolactic fermentation. It was transferred out of oak prior to the following harvest and left on yeast lees for a further eight months. The wine was bottled in January 2019 with alcohol 13.6%, pH 3.15 and acidity 6.4 g/l.