Gale Force Marlborough Pinot Gris 2020

Description

• Dry Style
• Ripe Pear
• Bread yeast
• Gingernut

"Delightfully ripe and inviting, showing yellow peach, Nashi pear and lemon peel characters on the nose. The palate displays lovely focus and persistency with silky texture and refreshing acidity, making it fabulously drinkable. At its best: now to 2023" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit

Trapped in the bottle are powerful Gale Force aromas of quince and ripe pear, each mouthful gives full body weight and a creamy texture laced with ginger nut and bread yeast characters and all is held together with beautifully fine acidity.

The grapes were quickly pressed off the skins and fermented under very cool conditions. The ferment was stopped when the fruit sweetness complimented the fine acidity. The wine was left on full yeast lees for an extended period to mature and gain extra complexity.

The Awatere Valley of Marlborough is a relatively new grape growing region of New Zealand. The most powerful element this valley has upon vines is the wind. Predominantly from the West, these winds drive through the valley from any direction and quite often reach Galeforce intensity. Galeforce winds are very unnatural for vines and they expend all their energy into producing the juiciest fruit with the most flavour for the birds to spread their seed. The fruit is harvested before the birds can get to them.

The 2020 season was very dry and if it weren’t for irrigation, a lot of the vines would have died. However, this reduced disease pressure leading up to harvest and we were able to pick clean and fully ripe fruit.

Food pairing: Pan-fried Halibut steaks served with a zesty salsa verde.