“Offering good value, made from hand-harvested grapes from the estate’s younger vines and matured for one year in French Oak.  Full, bright ruby, mouthfilling, generous and supple.   Cherry, plum, spice and slight tamarillo flavours with savoury notes adding complexity and fresh acidity to keep things lively.  At best mid-’26.  A ‘serious’ but approachable wine” 

Michael Cooper

A razor-sharp Riesling that keeps its cards close to its chest. Flint and citrus peel edge around a core of dry, chiselled fruit, while subtle spice lingers in the background. Brisk acidity slices through, creating a taut, electric structure. Beneath it all, the first whispers of smoky sweetness and mellow honey hint at what’s to come. It wraps up with a firm, grippy finish that leaves a lasting impression.

From the winemakers...

Our Chardonnay comes from an old hillside vineyard in the Southern Valleys region of Marlborough, where clay based loess soils prevail. Larger old barrels have predominantly been used to naturally ferment the wine. Untouched and aged over 14 months, without anything more than a peek in the barrel from time to time, has enhanced the elegance of this wine. Poised, with a delicious mineral backbone this chardonnay has tension, and genorosity at the same time, with a whiff of that classic struck match note that cool climate chardonnay can produce so well.

Suitable for Vegans.

Escarpment fashions Pinot Noir from the Martinborough district in New Zealand. Part of our ethos is to explore boundaries and create wines of interest and complexity.

W I N E M A K E R S   N O T E

The Noir label brings together over three decades of wine making experience, creating a soft, bright, fruit forward wine which can be enjoyed immediately or will cellar successfully for several years. Made using traditional techniques from fruit grown on the Martinborough terrace. The fruit was destemmed into open top vessels and fermented using indigenous yeast. After an average vat time of 20 days the wine was pressed off and aged in predominately older French barriques for 10 months. Bottled without fining or filtration, the resulting wine is a blend of 24 individual parcels. Structure and texture sit perfectly with ripe fruit flavours and gentle tannins that combine with intriguing complexity. Enjoy with many types of cuisine or cellar confidently for up to 5 years.

T A S T I N G 

Bright ruby red in colour, the wine opens with lifted perfume and fresh summer berries. An elegant vintage has given us softness and focus. It is very fragrant and attractive with fresh red berries, underpinned with turned earth, subtle spice and savoury notes, which add to complexity. The fresh berries continue on the palate with ripe cranberry, fresh cherry and strawberry, creating a bright vibrancy and crunchie freshness. Soft, fine-grained tannin also intertwine on the palate, creating texture and poise. This is an attractive wine that is immediately appealing but will also reward with a few years in the cellar. Serve at 16°C and enjoy with any red meat and rich pasta dishes, or as a perfect accompaniment to a barbeque.

Premium classic Pinot Noir Rose in classic packaging

Dry, lightly coloured, refreshing, balanced, delicate and everything else you want in a rose.

Yes  - it is wine with a tap. it's really good wine, yes again. We have sourced the very newest packaging that allows us to put this high end wine in a cylinder, allows you to have a glass when you want with nothing to worry about including not finishing the bottle. Finally premium wine with convienence.

New tech delivers no wastage, fresh with every glass, lasts up to a month, fully recyclable, and less than half the carbon footprint of the same wine in bottles. Times are a changing so get with a new programme - BigTed

Grapes from our Estate vineyards.
100% organic, vegan friendly and you can travel with this wee beauty, pop a small chiller pad in the top to keep it cool

Artwork by Callum Robertson

2 litres - 2.67 bottles.

TED  - redefining wine culture

BIG Ted Pinot noir 2023
Classic Central Otago Pinot Noir in classic packaging

Organic, soft, supple and Otago delicious fruit with red fruits, cherries, plums and all in between– everything you want in premium Pinot Noir.

Yes  - it is wine with a tap. it's really good wine, yes again. We have sourced the very newest packaging that allows us to put this high end wine in a cylinder, allows you to have a glass when you want with nothing to worry about including not finishing the bottle. Finally premium wine with convenience.

New tech delivers no wastage, fresh with every glass, lasts up to a month once opened, fully recyclable, and less than half the carbon footprint of the same wine in bottles. Times are a changing so get with a new programme - BigTed

Grapes from our Estate vineyards, destemmed, wild yeasts all aged in French oak.

100% organic, vegan friendly.
2 litres, 2.67 bottles

Artwork by Callum Robertson

TED  - redefining wine culture

VITICULTURE Selected from some of Hawke's Bay's finest vineyards, this sparkling wine was partially fermented in French oak barrels for 15 months for complexity of character. Central to the success of New Zealand as a world-renowned wine growing region is the temperate maritime climate and the freedraining alluvial soils. Cool nights and warm days retain acidity which lends freshness and vibrancy to the wines, highly characteristic of New Zealand wine styles. 

WINEMAKING Pinot Gris was picked from the Mission homeblock and very gently pressed. The juice was inoculated with specially developed, aromatic yeast strains to intensify varietal character development. A portion was fermented in French oak barrel for 15 months for complexity. After blending the cuvée, the wine underwent a secondary fermentation before bottling. 

TASTING NOTES - Zesty with delicate pear and apple and fine mousse. Grown on our historic vineyard, this sparkling wine was partially fermented in French oak barrels for 15 months for complexity of character. Aromas of delicate pear and apple with a zesty palate showing lemon, lime and nutty notes. 

CELLAR POTENTIAL Enjoy now or in the next one to two years. 

WINE ANALYSIS Alcohol 12.5% pH 3.25 Acidity 6.5 g/L Residual Sugar <9 g/L

2024 ORATERRA PINOT NOIR 

SEASON BRIEF FOR 2024 The 2024 season was a contrast to 2023, coming with a sting - or in this case, a grand finale - at the end. It was a splendid season, and the general feeling is that 2024 will be remembered alongside 2013, 2001 and 1998 as an outstanding year. A cool and turbulent spring meant that the fruit set was reduced, and thus the potential yield at harvest was down too. However, summer conditions were nothing short of amazing, the sun was out in full force, with very little rainfall. The key to the success was our vineyard management this year by keeping ample shade and leaf cover to lower vineyard temperatures and conserve water. The extended warm and dry weather periods resulted in wines that have retained freshness with good generosity. 

TASTING NOTE Beautiful vintages like 2024 risk losing a certain hook, or friction, in the wine. By picking early we avoided this risk and were able to retain good acidity and a degree of disposition to provide interest in the wine. Dark and bright fruit are the antagonists, with Morello cherry cutting through the riper characters. This Pinot Noir goes beyond typical varietal qualities to offer an array of complex and inviting aromatics. The wine is rounded and softly cushioned, moving effortlessly over the palate, with soft tannins acting as chaperones and guiding the fruit toward each corner of the mouth. Ageing: Age for 10-15 years Enjoy at a temperature of 18°C-20°C 

WINEMAKING We harvest all our fruit by hand into small tubs. The fruit is sorted the following day, cold, fully destemmed into small ferment vessels. Natural fermentation occurs, with an occasional hand plunge to help keep the ferments happy and homogenous. At around 18 - 24 days in the fermenting vessel, we pressed the wines and transferred them to large format barrels, 300 & 500 litres, for 12-18 months. The wine is racked and blended into stainless steel tanks before bottling without fining or filtration. 

TECHNICAL INFORMATION Vineyard source(s): McCreanor Vineyard, 37 Princess Street & La Belle Vie Vineyard, 115 New York Street, Martinborough, NZ Harvest dates: 8-18 March 24 | Harvest Brix: 21.5 - 24 Brix Alcohol by Volume: 13% | pH 3.68 | TA: 5.2 g/l

Commercial description

Our Merlot Cabernet Franc comes from our Cornerstone vineyard growing in Hawke's Bays' famed Gimblett Gravels appellation. An area renowned for producing excellent hot climate reds. We think Cornerstone is the jewel in the appellation's crown but there again we are rather biased!

In our Iris blend, the Merlot sets up the palate with ripeness and structure while the Cabernet Franc brings its sweet dried basil notes to create our deliciously good medium-bodied red

Vineyard Sites - Cornerstone Vineyard lies at the heart of the renowned Gimblett Gravels viticultural region, strategically positioned at the junction of Gimblett Road and State Highway 50 in Hawke’s Bay. This area is celebrated as New Zealand’s premier Bordeaux red grape-growing region, and it’s easy to see why. The vineyard’s unique terroir, composed of riverbed stones and gravels, challenges the vines, leading them to produce a limited yield of small, intensely coloured, and flavourful berries. The resulting grapes give rise to wines with rich, mouth-filling tannins and a depth of character that speaks to the harsh yet rewarding growing conditions. 

Vinification - The grapes were carefully handpicked and fermented in small, open vats. Traditional hand-plunging techniques were used to gently extract the rich flavours and colour. After fermentation, the wine underwent varying degrees of post-ferment skin contact to enhance complexity before being pressed off. The wine then proceeded to malolactic fermentation and was aged in French oak barriques, with 30% of the barrels being new, adding subtle layers of oak influence and refinement. 

Tasting Notes - Boasting an inky, deep ruby hue, this wine offers aromas of stewed red fruits, hints of raspberry jam, black cherry, black plum, and violets. Subtle light cedar and toast are so well knitted you almost miss them. On the palate, flavours of cooked red plum and hints of tobacco emerge.  The finish is long, with fruit carrying right through. An outstanding wine, perfect to drink now or age.

Commercial description.

Our "Home Block" vineyard, planted over 3 decades ago, is the sole source of this 2022 Forrest Malbec, revealing a captivating mix of boysenberry, chocolate, and coffee notes with a hearty and intense body.

Rays Road is Kumeu River’s new vineyard site in Hawkes Bay. This limestone hillside is at 180 m altitude, with a northerly aspect. It is dry-farmed to yield high quality grapes for wine under the Rays Road name for our Kumeu River label.  This Chardonnay was hand-harvested, whole bunch pressed and fermented with wild yeast in older French Oak barrels to give a wine that is zesty and fragrant, with mineral complexity that is very true to its site.

Kumeu River Wines is New Zealand's top Chardonnay producer and best known globally. 

Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay is the flagship white from the winery. It is made from  grapes grown on six different vineyard sites in Kumeu and is consistently one of New Zealand's greatest dry, full bodied whites with outstanding freshness and complexity.

The winery is in the West Auckland village of Kumeu where it 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. 

VINEYARDS: Cactus Merlot/Malbec, Lunatic Syrah, Owhiti Malbec, Ponui Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. 

BLEND: Malbec 35%, Merlot 32%, Syrah 28%, Cabernet Franc 5%

WINEMAKING

The vintage of 2023 was a challenging year climatically, very wet and humid with low sunshine hours and periods of intense rain culminating in flooding in late January and Cyclone Gabrielle in early February.  The weather improved for the harvest months, but low sunshine hours resulted in wines with a light elegant touch, fresh, lively and delicious in their delicacy. Our Pinque Rose is harvested from select coastal sites on Waiheke and Ponui Islands made up of individual vineyards planted in Merlot, Malbec and Syrah which are designed with Rose production in mind. Picking early in the season but still showcasing red berry characters, the f ruit is whole bunch pressed in the champagne style liberating only the cleanest and most pure of juice. Fermented cool in stainless steel tanks and blended in the winter. 

TASTING NOTE

Pinque is a pure expression of Rose. Beginning with a classic pale salmon colour the wine has aromas of crushed rose petal, musk candy (pink smokers) strawberry flesh and a maritime scent. The palate is fresh and delicate with shades of stone and citrus fruits with fresh herbs finishing clean, crisp and delicious. 2023 Pinque is an uplifting and refreshing response to a challenging vintage.

Dark crimson in colour, this wine is brooding with a rich, bold, and powerful bouquet of savoury red berry fruit, aromas of sweet raspberries, framboise liqueur and sweet vanilla. Lush, juicy, and very appealing savoury tannins give the wine great texture.

We expect this wine to reward careful cellaring over 7-10 years.