Tohu Awatere Valley Marlborough Pinot Gris 2025

Description

Dry, Pear, Spice

"Charming and pristine, the wine shows apricot, Asian pear, lemon zest, and white flower aromas on the nose. It's juicy and refreshing in the mouth with youthful fruit intensity and fine acidity, finishing long and tasty. At its best: now to 2028" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Oct 2025

This Pinot Gris from Marlborough’s Awatere Valley displays aromas of crisp pear, juicy ripe citrus and ginger notes. On the palate this fruit-driven wine displays fresh quince, apple, and subtle hints of sweet baking spice and lemon zest. Full-bodied yet bright on the palate, this this is a fresh, bright and richly textured wine with a long and lingering finish.

This wine is grown in two vineyards that boarder the fast-flowing Awatere River in Marlborough’s southern Awatere Valley. The Awatere Valley is cooler, drier, and windier than the other sub-regions of Marlborough – resulting in a longer growing season and vibrant flavours in the fruit. The 2024/2025 season started with perfect flowering conditions and good crop levels on the vines. Cooler temperatures during January slowed down ripen and allowed for concentrated flavours to develop in the fruit. The lead up to harvest provided ideal weather conditions, with perfectly ripe fruit harvested on the 26th March 2025.

Grapes sourced from two sites in the Awatere Valley are machine picked and then transported just a short distance to our nearby winery, where they are gently pressed with minimal skin contact. The resulting juice is then settled and racked into stainless steel tanks for warming and inoculation with carefully selected yeasts. The fermentation is carried out at cool temperatures of around 13°C to help preserve the fruity characters and lasts around 21 days until stopped when the levels of residual sugar, acidity and light phenolics are perfectly balanced. Post-ferment the wine is held in tank and matured for a short period of time before being stabilised and prepared for bottling. With no additional finings necessary this wine was bottled in mid-June 2025.