This Gewurztraminer shows notes of mango, ginger, nutmeg and rose petal on the nose. The palate is powerful, with fruit flavours supporting a smooth flowing structure that lingers in the mouth.

If you're looking for an organically certified, approachable white wine, here's a lovely off dry wine with white fleshed pear flavours and a hint of fresh lemon captured in a soft, smooth, dry white for drinking now or soon rather than for cellaring. It will hold its own for two to three years and offers good value for money.

This West Auckland Pinot Gris is made in a dry style with grapes from Kumeu, fermented with indigenous yeasts and given extended maturation on lees following fermentation. This adds richness and complexity to this youthful white. It drinks well now and can hold for a couple of years as a good quality dry white. 

Kumeu River Wines began life as San Marino Wines in 1944 when Croatian immigrant couple, Mick and Katé Brajkovich, bought a small property with a vineyard on it. Their descendents now own and run Kumeu River Wines, which produces 250,000 bottles of wine annually from its owns 30 hectares of vineyards in Kumeu and from another 10 hectares, owned by local grape growers. 

Here's a Pinot Gris that tastes noticeably drier than many and is all about fresh pure, white fruit flavours of pear and peach. The refreshing acidity comes from the cooler climate grapes contained in the wine, which is made from a blend of grapes grown in three sub regions of Marlborough. The cool climate Awatere Valley has 73% with the remaining 17% from the Waihopai Valley and 10% from Kekerengu on the southern coast.

Grapes were fermented at cool temperatures to preserve fruit freshness and dry flavours. 

Residual sugar is 3.8 grams, making it dry in style - and also in flavour. 

The story of Astrolabe

Diversity, history and family ownership are among the reasons to try the outstanding range of wines from Astrolabe, which was founded in 1996 in Marlborough by winemaker Simon Waghorn and his partner in life and wine, Jane. 

Simon has forged a reputation for being one of New Zealand's most respected producers of aromatic white wines after winning an almost embarrassingly long string of awards for his Sauvignon Blancs. He has also forged a name for adventurously diverse winemaking - he produces dry flinty whites from the most southern vineyard in Marlborough at Kekerengu on the coast about an hour's drive south of Blenheim. He is the only winemaker to produce wines from here. 

He is also one of the few in this country to make Albarino, Chenin Blanc and a consistently outstanding range of wines from the organically certified hillside sloping site that is the Wrekin Vineyard in Marlborough. 

The winery remains family owned and is now run by two generations, including Simon and Jane as well as their adult daughters. 

Amisfield Winery is based in Pisa while its beautiful cellar door shop and restaurant overlook Lake Hayes, just outside of Queenstown.

This winery makes a more diverse range of whites than most in Central Otago and the Pinot Gris is a light bodied, refreshing expression of this white grape from a cool climate. Spice, fresh fruit and a long finish all make this an extremely good quality Pinot Gris.

Pinot Gris is the fourth most planted grape in New Zealand with a massive 2,488 hectares nationwide, inching slowly up to Chardonnay’s 3,167 hectares. It’s huge growth from just 157 hectares of Pinot Gris as recently as 2001, but numbers aside, it’s the taste that counts and Greywacke is next level in flavour. 

The grapes in this wine are from the Wrekin Terrace Vineyard in Brancott Valley where they grow on gravel over clay-loam soils, typical of the Southern Valleys in Marlborough. Three clones of Pinot Gris were all hand picked separately at high ripeness levels to provide rich fruity flavours in the finished wine, which was fermented in a combo of old French oak barriques and stainless steel tanks, all with wild yeasts to a finished 14.4% ABV with 10 grams per litre of residual sugar. 

Fresh, full bodied, off dry and intensely concentrated; one for the large glass on a decadent spring evening. 

Greystone is one of North Canterbury's wine stars situated on the slopes of limestone rich hills in Omihi. All of the grapes that go into Greystone wines are 100% certified organic with BioGro NZ and all are estate grown. No additional fruit is purchased to supplement production, which is one of many incremental steps that go into Greystone's high quality wines.

This off dry Pinot Gris has body and richness thanks to the long dry autumn weather in North Canterbury, which allows long ripening and lovely ripe fruity flavours. 

Certified organic with BioGro NZ.

About Greystone

The Greystone wine story began in 2000 when the Thomas Family bought an old sheep farm on the Omihi hills in the Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. The rolling limestone hills lured this family in and their goal was a single minded one: to make great wines from the limestone rich soils here. Fast forward 20 years and Greystone is one of the great (and, some might say, yet to be fully discovered) wineries in this outstanding wine region. Not least due to the work of winemaker Dom Maxwell and general manager Nick Gill, who began working together in 2005 and has grown along with the brand and quality. 

The Prophet’s Rock Pinot Gris comes from both the Home and Rocky Point vineyards. Planting in these warmer areas of Central Otago and practising careful viticulture allows for the production of a very aromatic style of Pinot Gris, while retaining the trademark freshness of the region. This wine has achieved an avid following and wide acclaim, despite very limited production.

The vinification is heavily influenced by winemaker Paul Pujol's time in Alsace where use of wild yeast, multiple small vessels and long ageing are the norm. After long slow ferments the various components are aged on their yeast lees before bottling.

Pinot Gris for the Exiled comes from the St Helena clone of Pinot gris grown on both Waiheke and Ponui Islands. Lightly crushed and pressed then settled in tank before being racked with light solids into tank for fermentation. A mixture of un-inoculated and cultured yeast ferments are used with each vineyard fermenting slowly until the desired balance of acid, tannin and sugar is reached. The wines are then chilled to below zero to stop the fermentation before blending, the blend is held at low temperatures in the cellar until bottling to retain as much of the natural carbon dioxide as possible.

Off-dry in style.

A  very aromatic Pinot Gris with a nose exhibiting quince, dough, pear apple and cream. The palate is rich and intense with flavours of pork fat, apple and stone ruit - brought together in a bright acid frame.

Win-win dry Pinot Gris with a medium body and dialled up flavours of fresh white pear held in a smooth wine - and it's certified organic. Tastes good and is good. 

Organic certification

The organic story at Seresin

One of the greatest things about Seresin Estate is the organic certification. This came relatively early on for Seresin, who was dismayed by the amount used and the impacts of man made chemicals, which were routinely and frequently sprayed on vines. His early adopting philosophy of organic certification paved a positive path for the integrity of the wines as well as leading others to follow suit.

Lifted notes of floral and ripe white peach with succulent flavours of red apple, pear and spice with a refreshingly crisp finish.

In Essential Awatere fashion the finish is lively, crisp and lingering. A delicious wine that brings together “new world” fruit and “old world” elegance and minerality.

The Charles Wiffen Pinot Gris, is grown in the “Home” Block, which surrounds the Homestead on the farm, which was built in 1882. The block is spur pruned, with a targeted yield of 9 tonnes to the hectare. The grapes are machine harvested in the cool of the morning, transported to the winery, where it is gently destemmed, pressed and clarified. The juice is then fermented with selected yeasts, with the fermentation stopped at the desired residual sugar content.

This estate grown Pinot Gris exhibits aromas of beurre bose pear, hazelnut and white lily with hints of meyer lemon and rosewater on the palate and is refreshingly textured.

RS 5.5 g/L

Ripe pear, poached quince and rose petal florals are abundant in our Pinot Gris. The palate is full flavoured & textural which can be attributed to the beautifully balanced fruit at harvest combined with our unique winemaking technique. - Maude.

The Main Divide is the name of the Southern Alps in the South Island, which forms the backbone and divides each coast. It's also the name of a range of wines made by Pegasus Bay in North Canterbury, using 100% locally grown grapes.

The aim here is to make an Alsatian style of Pinot Gris. Grapes were picked at various stages of ripeness to create a wine with a broad flavour spectrum. All grapes were then fermented in stainless steel at cool temperatures to preserve fruit aromas. The ferment was stopped to allow the wine to retain 10 grams per litre of residual sugar, creating an off dry, medium bodied, super flavoursome style of Pinot Gris. 

The wine was matured for a short time on its yeast lees (sur lie) pre bottling.