Our flock of Babydoll miniature sheep stand barely two feet tall. Too short to reach the fruit, these pint-sized organic-weeders provide year round mowing and pest control, plus a handy dose of fertiliser.

Having sheep graze in the vineyard cuts down on energy intensive mowing, but has its pitfalls once the vines grow and the grapes emerge. Yealands Estate, a Marlborough winery that’s renowned for environmentally sustainable initiatives, has come up with an all-season solution. Our flock of Babydoll miniature sheep stand barely two feet tall. Too short to reach the fruit, these pint-sized organic-weeders provide year round mowing and pest control, plus a handy dose of fertiliser. Nurtured from the ground up with sustainable practices and produced in a carboNZero certified winery, the pureandintense flavours of Babydoll reflect the winery’s innovative thinking in tune with the environment.

The  2016  growing season started out incredibly dry, with some predicting a severe drought. Fortunately some unseasonal rains in February set the vines up for a great final ripening period. March and April were very consistent, with warm and dry weather experienced throughout Marlborough allowing a harvest that wasn’t dictated by the weather.  The Pinot Gris fruit from this vintage was extremely clean coming into the winery and the resulting wine has focused, lifted aromatics and beautiful concentration and mouthfeel.

Select parcels of Pinot Gris were individually harvested, crushed, de-stemmed and gently pressed. The juice was cold settled for 48 hours then racked prior to a long cool fermentation in stainless steel tanks to capture and enhance the fruit flavours of pear, honey and stone fruit. Each parcel was fermented separately using a range of selected yeasts. Following fermentation the wine was blended, lightly fined then filtered prior to bottling.