Luna Estate Martinborough Pinot Gris 2024

Description

Apricot, Dry, Vanilla

Clear & vibrant, pale white gold colour Fresh and enlivening scents of nashi pear & white stonefruit flesh. Nice tropical accents too, mango and subtle coconut. Nice delicate blossom florals and pink musk stick. Delicious, fresh, softly textured and balanced to taste. The acidity is fine & delicate yet persistent enough to hold a line right through the palate. Loads of ripe, sweet fruit flavours linger on the finish.

What a rollercoaster vintage! After the challenges of 2022 and 2023, there was understandably nervous anticipation across the region for 2024. Early budburst left the vineyards vulnerable to spring frosts, and those concerns proved justified. Multiple frost events through September and October culminated in one that overwhelmed the frost fans, causing widespread crop loss. Not the start anyone wanted. Just as the vines recovered and began flowering in early-mid November, a cold southerly system arrived with rain and wind, persisting through the crucial flowering period. The entire region was affected—marking three consecutive years of minimal crops for many growers. While challenging, smaller crops do promise intensely flavoured wines. Summer brought welcome El Niño conditions—hot and dry—a stark contrast to three La Niña years. The small crop ripened beautifully under these conditions, setting up for some exceptional wines. Then came the grassfire when a harvester in the neighbouring hay paddock struck a powerline. The blaze spread quickly to Eclipse Vineyard, but your community and volunteer firefighters rallied brilliantly, containing it before major damage occurred. A powerful reminder of what communities can achieve together. Despite another challenging season, vintage 2024 should yield some mighty wines.

Grown and harvested from the clay and limestone soils of Bluerock vineyard. All bunches were destemmed and transferred to the press for maceration on skins, extracting naturally present ripe phenolics, flavour compounds and ripe tannins. Pressing was long and relatively hard – up to 2 bar of pressure with no “hard press” juice separation. Post pressing the juice was chilled and a small amount of bentonite was added to clarify the juice prior to fermentation. The juice was fermented in a mixture of old French oak barrels and temperature controlled stainless steel tank. Following fermentation, the wine was matured in our winery for 8 months prior to bottling.

Food Pairing: Very versatile but I’m thinking about prosciutto and (proper) mozzarella pizza right now.