Fabulous Chardonnay from Karl Johner's vineyard at Gladstone in the central Wairarapa, a cool climate which accentuates the crisp fresh acidity that balances the full bodied, creamy nuances in this lovely wine. 

Great value for money and a wine that combines creamy flavours with freshness.

This Pinot Noir is from block with clay soil, which is planted in 2003. This wine shows full of charming red to dark fruits. A very charming wine to go with food.

Serious and structured Pinot Noir from one of Martinborough's oldest wineries and a tiny vineyard. This beautiful young wine is all about dry, savoury and earthy flavours balanced by vibrant ripe dark cherry fruit and spicy depth. It's a great drink now and will age superbly for up to 10 years. 

Roger Parkinson is was one of the first winemakers in Martinborough and produces this exceptional Pinot Noir from a small 0.8 hectare vineyard known as Lease Block, which is situated on Huangarua Road. This is Martinborough’s golden mile of wineries and vineyards. The small site was planted in 1999 in 100% Pinot Noir clone 5, 115, and 10/5.This wine is made with 15% whole bunch fermentation, maceration for 22 days and maturated in French oak, 33% new for 20 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, this wine is vegan friendly.

An elegant Syrah from Hawke's Bay winemaker Kate Radburnd, whose extensive experience of making Syrah brings out the best in this exotic spicy French grape variety. Red fruit aromas are supported here by a velvet smooth backbone of fine tannins. Pure fruited and fragrant, with blueberry and cardamon spice. This Syrah has lingering length and persistence of flavour, a hallmark of this variety.

This delicious, dark and juicy new release is made from hand harvested Syrah grapes, which were destemmed and fermented in open tops with some foot stomping. Some whole bunches were incorporated in the ferment.

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 

This wine is a labour of love and was made from hand picked grapes grown on the organically certified Ashmore Vineyard in Fairhall, Marlborough. A combination of spontaneous yeast and inoculated ferments (50/50) were taken to 12.5% ABV and residual sugar of 19.5 grams per litre, which makes this wine medium dry in style. It tastes like lemon zest and fresh ripe Granny Smith apples on speed… a gorgeous refreshing, full bodied Marlborough white wine made from one of the greatest grapes on Earth. 

A must try. 

Churton Estate's Natural State Pied de Cuve is made by second generation winemakers, Ben and Jack Weaver, who use grapes from the Loin Vineyard, which is family owned and farmed using biodynamic principles. This Sauvignon Blanc was whole bunch pressed into old oak puncheons and fermented with wild yeasts which were cultured from the vineyard. It was aged for a year on yeast lees and bottled without fining or filtration, so it is vegan friendly. A small addition of SO2 was added at bottling to retain freshness. 

Churton Estate founder and winemaker Sam Weaver cut his teeth on the classic wines of the world while working in fine wine retail in the United Kingdom. He and his wife Mandy Weaver then moved to New Zealand and set about creating one of this country's most focussed small wineries; a brand that does live up to the dream of creating 100% estate grown grapes, 100% certified organic production and 100% bottled on site, nearly all of the wines without fining or filtration. All the grapes are hand picked and natural yeasts ferment the vast majority of wines they make. These qualitative decisions impact every step of their winemaking in a positive fashion, providing exceptional quality grapes which in turn express themselves in outstanding wines.

The Natural State wines are the brainchild of second generation family winemakers, Ben and Jack Weaver.

Beautiful bright black cherries are captured in a structured full bodied Pinot Noir with delicacy and light notes of earth, spice and summer berries. This is the best Whitehaven Pinot Noir yet, made mostly from grapes grown in Marlborough's Southern Valley sub-region.  A stunner and incredibly good value for money. 

This wine drinks beautifully now (in 2024) and will certainly age well for at least five years. 

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.

This wine was hand harvested and whole bunch pressed followed by an extended time ageing on the lees. The wine is a rich straw gold colour, with floral aromas and apricot and orange notes on the nose. Extended lees ageing adds complex creamy, toasty qualities and nuttiness on the palate. This is supported by an underlying stony minerality and balanced acidity. This is a highly rated wine which will benefit from ageing.

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.

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.

Maori Point Pinot Noir is a full bodied expression of the hero red grape of Central Otago and named after a bend on the Mata-Au (also known as the Clutha River) where Māori prospectors panned for gold in the 1860s.

The wine brand is owned by two families who grow the grapes and employ experienced winemakers in the region to produce their wines. The philosophy of the owners is to produce high quality wines made from hand picked grapes from vineyard sites with low yields, using wild yeast fermentations, minimal sulphur additions and using sustainable practices as much as possible. This is their quest and the wines are elegant renditions of Otago's edgy climate with its hot summer days and cool seasons on both sides of ripening. 

Fruit from an established vineyard, grown on the famous alluvial terrace - a quintessentially Martinborough Pinot Noir, with classic savoury characters, lifted spice and supple tannin.

Winemaker's notes

The Kiwa vineyard, in the township of Martinborough is one of the mature plots planted in the district. A combination of deep alluvial gravels for which the Martinborough Terraces are renowned. A combination of Clones UCD 5 and 6 rewards us with a complex and spicy wine.  The fruit was destemmed to an open top fermenter with the inclusion of some whole bunch. It was fermented using indigenous yeast and hand plunged just once a day for soft extraction, with a total vat time of 25 days. After pressing it was matured in 35% new French oak barriques for 20 months. Bottled without fining or filtration, promoting textured mouth feel and balanced fruit complexities.

Tasting

The Kiwa vineyard tends to exhibit complex savoury notes, of bay laurel, green tea and Chinese five spice. These are underpinned by an array of red fruits such as raspberry, sour red cherry and red currant, that sit amidst lifted and floral perfumed notes. The savoury complexity continues through the palate, with a wine that offers both grace and presence. It is bright and expressive with incredible buoyancy, thanks to the taut focus and firm tannins. This helps to tighten the structure giving one confidence to cellar for at least 10 years. Serve at 16°C and match with any game food.