Gardo & Morris Organic Marlborough Rosé 2025

Description

Dry, Melon, Raspberry

"Immediately appealing on the nose with aromas of raspberry, apricot, rockmelon, and lemon zest. The palate displays excellent fruit purity and persistence, splendidly supported by fleshy texture and bright acidity, making it fabulously drinkable" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit

Planted on flats between the Brancott and Omaka Valley in Marlborough, New Zealand Subregion Appellation - Southern Valleys. Single vineyard farmed organically (Biogro certified since 2017) where cover-crops are used to promote soil health and biodiversity within the vineyard. The aim is for a healthy rich vineyard environment and we see this follow through over the years promoting healthy grapes full of flavour and character. By naturally looking after the vineyards organically the vines crop lower and produce better fruit another benefit is the old vines are far more in balanced and have a longer productive lifespan. All old vines 26 years old (in 2024) – Vine age tends to give the resulting more texture and a greater expression of where the wine was grown.

I would say the 2025 vintage was another great year for Marlborough.  Characterised by low rainfall throughout and warm & sunny during spring flowering creating higher yields though-out the region about 30% up long term averages and this was observed especially with this block of Pinot Noir. Luckily this was followed by a great growing summer which was warm and windy, once again we were a bit worried that vintage would be too early and condensed but then March arrived with perfect clear days in the low to mid 20C range & most importantly the night time temps were really low over the month of March which helped retain all those magic fruit flavours and natural acidity found in our grapes in this subregion. Another dream year for winemakers in Marlborough for producers focused on producing quality wine and limiting cropping levels. This is a good vintage that will showcases the difference between the different wineries in the region and especially their vineyard management due to cropping levels as in early April we had some poor weather and grapes still out during this would have been affected negatively if not picked before the rain.

Picking was done on the 21st March throughout cool of the night and morning when the perfect balance of ripeness and acidity balance is tasted in the vineyard. The vineyard is machine harvested in the chilly autumn morning (below 10C) using an extremely gentle select head machine harvester that delivers whole cold berries which are perfect to preserve the clean fruit flavours found in the Clone 10/5 grapes from this vineyard that are perfectly suited to making a Rosé. Grapes are transported directly to the winery where they are pumped directly to a press where we press gently over a 3 hour cycle separating the free-run juice and pressings. The juices were then settled 1 – 5 days (depending on taste) then racked very clear for a cool long fermentation in a combination of stainless steel and french oak puncheons. The wine was then rested in the puncheons & Stainless steel on lees until ready to be bottled in late 2025 just in time for the Southern hemisphere summer holidays. Simple winemaking with outstanding grapes is always our aim.