Tohu Raiha Reserve Marlborough Noble Riesling 2016 (375ml)

Description

Apricot, Dessert, Honey

A brilliant gold hue in the glass, this single vineyard Noble Riesling displays luscious botrytis aromas of apricot and wild honey. Generous and mouth-filling, the palate bursts forward with abundant sweetness balanced with zesty lemon meringue and sweet citrus flavours. Concentrated, rich and viscous, this wine leads to a long, smooth finish.

The grapes for this wine were exclusively sourced from our vineyard in the upper reaches of Marlborough’s Awatere Valley. The 2015/2016 growing season began with a warm spring and even budburst. A cooler, dry early summer resulted in excellent fruit-set in the Riesling block. Warm temperatures in in the late summer resulted in a great season for fruit development and ripening, while autumn rains promoted the development of botrytis in the grapes.

The fine weather that followed allowed the grapes to dry out and sugar levels to concentrate. The grapes for this wine were harvested in two passes on the same day – the first being distinctive raisined, black grapes, and the second more typical unshrivelled grapes providing natural acidity and just enough juice to aid processing and pressing in the winery.

Late harvest grapes infected with the ‘noble rot’ botrytis, were carefully handharvested before being slowly and gently pressed for over 12 hours to obtain limited amounts of sweet, syrup-like juice. Left to naturally cold settle over period of around 10 days, the resulting clear juice was then racked into a stainless steel tank for fermentation. Inoculated with specially selected yeasts that naturally adapt to a high-sugar environment, the wine fermented slowly over the next four weeks and was carefully monitored over this time until the right balance of alcohol, sugar and acid had been reached.

Once at this point the ferment was stopped by cooling and left to settle before being racked and stabilised. Aged in tank for two months, this wine was given time to developed further complexities before being bottled in mid-September without fining.