Nautilus Estate Marlborough Albarino 2016

Description

This is a limited edition, single vineyard wine. Albariño, one of the most  distinctive varieties from Spain, is a recent introduction to the pristine  winegrowing region of Marlborough. 

On the nose, the 2016 vintage shows fragrant fresh apricots, honeysuckle perfume, hints of melon and mandarin peel notes. The palate is flavoursome and fleshy with a refreshing zingy finish.

Prior to Christmas all the talk was about drought. Fruit set was good but would we have enough water to get through the season and what effect would this have on bunch size. Certainly the river was low. But of course Mother Nature intervened and a couple of timely rains in January during  the critical  phase when the berries size up meant that a crop that was  looking average at best ended up above average in size. Our response was to do a significant amount of thinning in our Abariño vineyard to get the vines back into balance. A key feature this year was lower acidity (by normal  Marlborough standards), bright fruit flavours and a nice mineral texture across all the wines.

Fruit was hand picked and chilled overnight before being destemed and crushed prior to pressing. The racked and clarified juice was then cool  fermented in a stainless steel tank using an aromatic yeast. A short period  of maturation on yeast lees followed prior to bottling.