Te Whare Ra Single Vineyard Marlborough Riesling 'D' 2021

Description

Dry, Floral, Grapefruit

"This is an outstanding wine, I am captivated and impressed with the focus and concentration of aromas and flavours leading to a palate of energy and power. Core flavours are led by lemon stone and citrus lime-flower quality, white apricot and a touch of white pineapple. As the wine opens out in glass these flavours sit nicely beside those of blossoms and apple, honeysuckle and baby’s breath floral highlights. The acidity and moderate alcohol carry the flavours throughout the palate leading to a lengthy dry finish. A perfect aperitif wine and equally delicious with delicately sweet seafood dishes. Best drinking from day of purchase through 2025" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Jan 2024

"Dry-ish wine with lime, wet stone and white wildflower flavours. Gutsy with impressive concentration. Just a tad coarse but should mellow with age" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, The Real Review, Jun 2022

"Floral, perfumed nose with sweet apple and mandarins. Some pithy phenolics coming in to balance the medium-dry palate. Juicy apple flavours on the finish take on a slight sour oxidative edge. Also a bit cheesy. Fair length and concentration" Stephen Wong, The Real Review, Jun 2022

This wine has gorgeous lifted aromas of jasmine, fresh lemon, and ripe Kaffir lime follow through on to the palate. Flavours of fresh lime juice, lemon sorbet and ripe grapefruit with hints of floral spice are balanced by a fine backbone of ripe acidity. This Riesling is a dry style which has excellent fruit weight and concentration to balance the lingering mineral acid structure. This wine is finely structured with great length of flavour.

We love Riesling as a variety for multiple reasons but mostly for its purity, elegance and age-ability. We whole-heartedly believe that our old block vines (which are 41yrs old this vintage), combined with the growing conditions and climate here in Marlborough, are capable of making world class Riesling.

The original Riesling vines on our home block here at the winery were planted in 1979 and are the oldest Riesling vines in Marlborough. Part of the reason for our conversion to organic and biodynamic farming was to rescue these old vines and coax them back to life. We saw huge potential in this old block and successfully rejuvenating them has been one of our greatest achievements. The fruit from these old vines has great fruit concentration and structure as well as great natural acidity that lends itself very well to making a dry style Riesling.

The summer of 2021 was warm, dry and very even with no big heat spikes to push the ripening along too fast. We did not get the issues with extreme drought like we had in 2019 - so with a couple of timely rains, plus the more gentle summer conditions, that meant we had the first fruit coming into the winery late February (officially earliest ever start to harvest here!) and then we were all done by the end of March. The resultant wines have great depth of flavour and fleshiness with lovely purity of fruit, bright aromatics and ripe, juicy acidity. The 2021 Riesling is drinking well now and will also benefit from careful cellaring for 6-8+ years.

All the grapes for this wine were hand-picked and hand-sorted. The fruit was then destemmed, gently crushed, and air-bag pressed. Some parcels given skin contact time. All parcels were fermented in stainless steel tanks that were purpose built for Riesling. We like very slow, cool ferments for the Riesling to help retain all the great floral aromatics. This wine has not been fined and it suitable for vegans and vegetarians and anyone who loves authentic, truly hand-made wines.