Mills Reef Reserve Hawke's Bay Pinot Gris 2022

Description

• Dry style
• Stone fruit
• Ginger spice
• Creamy smooth

This refined Pinot Gris has been crafted from grapes off our own superior Hawke’s Bay vineyard. Full bodied and creamy smooth, it displays attractive peach, nectarine, and nashi pear flavours complimented with pink grapefruit, and a deliciously soft ginger spice finish.

The grapes for this cooler-climate loving variety were sourced from low-yielding vines located within the Maraekakaho sub-region of the Hawke’s Bay. The site enjoys a temperate climate moderated throughout summer by cooling afternoon breezes, in tandem with alluvial soils underfoot overlaying red metal, on terraced sun-facing slopes - the combination of which is ideally suited to the Pinot Gris variety.

The weather over the 2022 growing season was characterised by a cooler start during spring flowering which helped to naturally moderate crop levels for higher wine quality, leading onto a long, dry, hot summer. However, two significant depressions in March meant careful and astute picking decisions were made, with harvest happening prior on the 10th of March with immaculate fruit condition and optimal fruit profile.

The grapes were pressed on arrival to the winery and the clarified juice transferred to three stainless steel tanks for fermentation, initiated with an inoculated yeast specially selected for its aromatic expression. A blending trial on the separate batches was undertaken to achieve the right balance, enhanced complexity and mouthfeel. The emerging wine thereafter received a light fining, progressing through to cold stabilisation prior to bottling on 20th July 2022, under screwcap.

Food Pairing: Enjoy with devilled eggs or sushi and horseradish sauce.