Pegasus Bay Aria Waipara Valley Late Picked Riesling 2025

Description

Floral, Honey, Medium-sweet

"This is gorgeously styled and immensely appealing on the nose with aromas of dried apricot, honey, orange marmalade, and potpourri. The delicious palate offers excellent weight and creamy texture, splendidly supported by seductive sweetness and bright acidity, making it wonderfully balanced with a multi-layered mouthfeel" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Feb 2026

"Utterly gorgeous nose, honey and musk, almond and apple, lemon and fruit pastille. There’s a fascinating chalky phenolic aspect going on that adds structure and grip, neatly contrasting the sweetness. Honey, apricot, citrus, toffee apple, burnt orange, so much going on here that draws you back. A long, lingering, lip-smacking finish that feels more off-dry. Great stuff" Mark Henderson, Otago Daily Times, Mar 2026

It has a bright gold tint. Beautiful florality wafts from the glass, with aromas of honeysuckle and elderflower, entwined with impressions of marmalade, pineapple, ginger and lemon meringue pie. The palate is richly textured, with commanding weight and depth, backed by a luscious personality. Ripe fruit is underlain with taut acidity and engaging phenolics, adding intensity and focus on the long, succulent travel.

The Donaldson Family have been seriously involved in viticulture and winemaking for almost 50 years. Founder Ivan Donaldson planted one of Canterbury’s first vineyards in 1976 and went on to establish Pegasus Bay in 1986 with his wife Christine. It is a true family business, with the second generation now actively involved.

The vineyard is located within the Waipara Valley of North Canterbury, on free draining, north facing terraces. It benefits from being in the lee of the Teviotdale Range, giving maximum protection from the Pacific’s easterly breezes and thus creating a unique mesoclimate. The vines are close to 40 years old, with a large proportion planted on their own roots. They are located on the “Glasnevin Gravels” where greywacke stones, silt and loam have been washed down from the mountains over the millennia. The soil is of low fertility, resulting in naturally reduced vine vigour. This produces low yields of optimally ripened, high quality, flavourful grapes, which fully express the qualities of this unique terroir. The vineyard has warm days, but the nights are amongst the coolest in the Waipara Valley, drawing out the ripening period of the grapes, while still retaining good natural acidity.

Settled and very hot weather over flowering delivered a bumper fruit set that necessitated considerable crop thinning. A wet and tepid January was followed by variable weather and a cooler than average autumn. Late season conditions, however, were favourable for the development of noble botrytis. Careful management around pick dates and rigorous bunch selection were essential to ensure fruit arriving at the winery was of the highest quality possible.

Aria is part of Pegasus Bay’s reserve series and is the sister wine to our Bel Canto dry riesling. After an extended hang time, the bunches were hand selected with a portion of noble botrytis and a ripeness of approximately 28 Brix. The grapes were then gently pressed, and the juice fermented slowly at cool temperatures to help the wine retain its vibrant fruit characters and varietal purity. At all stages, from fermentation to bottling, it was handled very carefully to help retain a little of its naturally dissolved carbon dioxide. This has resulted in a small amount of spritzig, which adds extra liveliness to the wine and accentuates its freshness.