Provenance is the name of the top Pinot Noir from Big Sky, one of the most spectacularly beautiful wineries in Martinborough. This wine is a stunning expression of New Zealand Pinot Noir at its best; savoury, full bodied and over flowing with gorgeous ripe dark fruit flavours underpinned by firm tannins giving the wine structure and a commanding presence in the glass. 

This is a wine to drink now and cellar into the future. 

The Big Sky story

Jeremy Corban and Katherine Jacobs founded Big Sky Wines in the Te Muna Valley, Martinborough, in 2005. They have since expanded their small vineyard, which is predominantly planted in Pinot Noir and also has a little Sauvignon Blanc, which they give extra textural complexity to with a little time in old oak on lees. 

Whitehaven Wines began life in 1994 as a romantic business for a couple of corporate escapees, Sue and Greg White, who had given up life in the rat race of Auckland for another kind of life aboard their yacht. When sailing around the country, they took shelter in the Marlborough Sounds from Pacific storms and fell in love with the region. An easy thing to do when harbouring in the spectacularly pristine waters of the Sounds. They decided to settle there on terra firma once more and try their hands at wine production, hiring a winemaker and beginning a business which has now been around for 26 years. Greg has sadly passed away now, leaving a legacy as well as his wife and daughter, Sam, to run the winery. Their winemaker is Peter Jackson.

Appealingly aromatic, this Pinot Noir reveals notes of Morello cherry and bramble ont he nose. On the palate - fine, silky tannins and juicy acidity provide an elegant structure, with complexity coming from gentle toast and woodsmoke characters.

VINEYARD - The fruit from this wine was sourced from a single Waipara Valley vineyard.  The fruit is left on the vine to ripen until the berries start to lose moisture and shrivel, concentrating the flavours and producing a rich style of Pinot Gris. 

SOIL TYPE - Alluvial gravels

WINEMAKING - The fruit was hand-picked and meticulously hand sorted. The juice was fermented warm by indigenous yeasts in aged French oak barriques.

TASTING NOTES - Wonderfully fruited and fragrant, the bouquet shows mango, golden peach, poached pear and rich floral aromas, leading to a splendidly flavoursome palate offering opulent fruit flavours with spicy nuances, finishing long and delicious. Gorgeously styled with rich tones of ripe fruit intensity backed by juicy acidity. Sam Kim - Wine Orbit.

Chardonnay lovers will be all over this wine made from hand picked grapes grown on the Heretaunga Plains in Hawke's Bay. Grapes were whole bunch pressed and
barrel fermented with wild yeasts, which provides rich depth of flavour and a smooth palate mouthfeel; Lees stirring enhances softness and builds structure and weight to this wine, which was aged for 11 months in barrel.

Chardonnay is what made Gisborne famous and one sip of this and you’ll see why. Complex with layered citrus- and stone fruit aromas, lifted by savoury yeast and nutty oak characters, the palate sensation is both fresh and textured. The wine delivers Gisborne’s bold elegance with a long and seamless finish. Ripe and weighty fruit flavours without the heat of excess alcohol. Big wine, beautiful wine, with a taste that will linger for ages.

Hand-picked and fermented with natural vineyard yeasts and aged in 20% new French oak barrels and 38% in a concrete Tulipe for 12 months before settling in a concrete Tulipe on light lees for a further 5 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Slightly hazy, lemon golden hue. Complex aromas of grilled nuts, citrus fruits, florals and a hint of lemon rind. Mouth-watering acidity drives the wine with laser focus, flavours of citrus fruits, toasted nuts and a creamy texture gives the wine body and weight. A classic North Canterbury Chardonnay that is fully ripe and saline.

Elegant and refined with a backbone of pristine fruit and balanced acidity, this finely concentrated Chardonnay has a lovely freshness and finesse and will become more complex as it evolves over time. It is drinking well now, and will develop beautifully over 5-7 years.

VINEYARDS
Old vine Mendoza Chardonnay was sourced from two sites in Hawke’s Bay.
The Mangatahi site is inland and elevated and later ripening, while Bridge Pa
ripens Chardonnay beautifully with their red metal soils.
Low yielding vines, open canopy management, managed irrigation and Sustainable
Winegrowing NZ farmed were common to both sites. The Mendoza clone with their
typical hen and chicken bunches produced fruit of great intensity and balance,
and structured acidity. This Chardonnay was hand harvested and cooled overnight.

WINEMAKING
The cooled bunches were hand sorted then whole bunched pressed. The majority of
juice was cold settled then racked to barrel. Fermentation was in new and seasoned
French oak, with selected cultured yeast and indigenous yeast, for added complexity.
A combination of 500L puncheons and 225L barriques were employed. Lees stirring
post fermentation was regular and malolactic fermentation was completed in barrel.
The Chardonnay matured in barrel for 9 months before blending and bottling.

TASTING NOTE
An elegant Chardonnay which focuses on the beautiful structure so evident in this
grape variety. Pristine fruit and balanced acidity are the backbone, enhanced with
seamless texture and mouthfeel. Citrus notes, particularly grapefruit pith abound, gracefully supported by sweet French oak.

Radburnd Cellars 

Delicious succulent Chardonnay from North Canterbury made from a great vintage for Ataahua Wines. This drop dead gorgeous Chardonnay is full bodied, bone dry and incredibly succulent with lively crisp citrusy flavours and excellent concentration. Complex flavours of ripe grapefruit, white peach and nectarine are beautifully integrated with freshly crushed white nuts and creamy aromas. 

Ataahua is owned by Stephanie Henderson-Grant and Andrew Grant. Their vineyards are based in the Waipara Valley, the heart of North Canterbury's wine region.

This flagship Chardonnay expresses a medley of peach and melon flavours, overlaid with toasty oak. A rich, ripe style with finely integrated oak and a taut but harmonious acidity on the finish. - Matawhero.

Mount Beautiful by name and by nature, this full bodied, peachy South Island Chardonnay is beautifully balanced by freshness and acidity of flavours of red apple, stone fruits and nectarines, leading to a creamy, textured palate that is medium bodied. Flavours include layers of buttered brioche and the wine finishes clean and crisp with flint-like minerality.

Cloudy Bay Chardonnay is a savoury and complex wine with bright aromatics and a powerful palate. Notes of citrus rind and stone fruit take the lead in this wine, backed up by nuttiness, excellent minerality and a hint of spice.

Hieronymus is a blend of grapes and of vineyards and is composed of 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc, 12% Malbec and 8% Tempranillo with 58% from the Gimblett Gimblett and 42% from the Bridge Pa Triangle.

Grapes were harvested in three separate hand picked lots and fermented separately in oak cuves, then drained to barrel without pressing. The wine was aged for 26 months in 50% new French oak.

The wine's name pays homage to an ancestor of the winery's owners, the Weiss family.

Rockford Shiraz Cabernet is one of the icons of Australia and of the Barossa Valley with its bold deep ruby colour and powerful tannins adding layers of complex texture and taste to a wine that drinks well now with dark berry flavours and will evolve into a wine with smoothness, spicy notes and black olive depths over time in the bottle.

Rockford Wines' legacy

Rockford Wines is an icon itself and a relatively new one, established in 1971 by Robert O'Callaghan, who has forged a reputation for preserving winemaking tradition and saving many of the world's oldest grape vines from being pulled up in the Australian Government's vine pull schemes of the 1970s and 1980s.

The Rockford vintage shed houses equipment from 50 to 100 years ago, which was discarded by other wineries as modernisation took over.