"Bright, pale straw-yellow colour, lighter on the edge. The nose is elegant and tightly bound, still to develop, but showing a fine and intense core of green stonefruits and gooseberries with subtle notes of nuts and flinty minerals. The aromatics are clean, clear and mouthwatering. Dry to taste and medium-bodied, the palate is refined and concentrated, quite slender in presentation, with flavours of gooseberries and green stonefruits along with subtle nutty and mineral detail. The fruit is enriched and enlivened by crisp, lacy acidity and the wine flows along a very fine line with energy and drive, leading to a long, lingering, tightly bound finish of gooseberries, herbs and minerals. This is a youthfully tight, concentrated, oak influenced Sauvignon Blanc with green stonefruit and gooseberry flavours, subtle flinty detail on a lively palate. Match with seafood and herb-marinated poultry dishes over the next 3 years. Hand-picked fruit from the company’s Maraekakaho vineyard, indigenous yeast fermented in seasoned puncheons and barriques, with a portion in tank, with full solids to 12.0% alc., the wine aged 5 months on lees" Raymond Chan, Mar 2017

"Grapes were hand picked, whole bunch pressed and fermented in seasoned oak barrels and tanks with five months on lees. Complex and stylish, the fragrant bouquet shows grapefruit, red apple, almond and dried herb aromas with subtle flinty undertones. The palate is beautifully weighted and flavoursome, and displays lovely purity combined with delicate savoury complexity. Very long on the finish. At its best: now to 2020. $27.00" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, March 2017

The wine has character, richness and complexity to burn. It’s dry with a crisp acidity and has a mineral chalkiness to it when first poured. Given a few minutes in the glass, the irrepressible Hawke’s Bay fruit intensity jumps out of the glass and you’re left in no doubt, lime juice, fennel and passionfruit…. Sauvignon Blanc.

These grapes were grown at our Maraekakaho Vineyard. Autumn 2016 was warm and settled which means an extended hang time, and excellent flavour development. Vine yield was kept below 3kg per vine to maximize balance, flavour and intensity.

Hand harvested in late March, then whole bunch pressed. The juice was then wild fermented on full solids in seasoned puncheons, barriques and tank, then aged on lees for five months. We have gained extra richness and flavour complexity as a result. Blended in August and bottled in early January 2017.