Loveblock Marlborough Dry Riesling 2020

Description

Dry, Honey, Spice

Palest straw with hints of green in the glass. Hints of lime and honey, underscored by an inherent flintiness and developing aged Riesling characteristics. The back palate explodes with lemon and lime notes. The mid-palate is warm with a hint of spice and a touch of honey backed by stony minerality and linear acidity.

The grapes for this wine were sourced entirely from the family-owned vineyard in Lower Dashwood, where the elevated and windy location challenges the vines. The soil here is predominately composed of a layer of top soil over a tight clay that the vines can't penetrate. Dependent on vigour, the vines were cane pruned to either one or two canes and trained to vertical shoot position. The warm spring of 2019 brought ideal early growing conditions and a tip-top flowering season. The bunches were reduced to one bunch per cane before flowering, producing yields of 5 tonnes per hectare when harvested in April 2020.

Once at the winery, the grapes were crushed, destemmed and pressed immediately. The juice was then floated, warmed and inoculated with an aromatic yeast. A cool fermentation followed and when the wine was deemed in balance (in residual sugar, alcohol and acidity) the ferment was stopped. The wine was then stabilised, filtered and bottled in July 2020.

Perched on top of the hills overlooking Marlborough's Awatere Valley, the Loveblock is far removed from the agricultural bustle in the valley below. From here you can almost see the end of the planet, the peace lifts you above your troubles. Winemkaers are charged with creating the best wine they can to express this extraordinary place and its unique aspect. They follow their deeply held belief of low intervention farming, which allows the wine to show its true and naked terroir. Loveblock is their heart and soul.

Food Pairing: Sushi, sashimi or the delicate flavours of Japanese or Cambodian food.