A steep vineyard in Omihi that was established in 1999 has now been renamed as Damsteep (aptly enough) and is home to the grapes that find their way into this pretty aromatic Pinot Noir with its smooth and savoury flavours of fruity red berries, wrapped in firmly structured earthy notes and a lingering, silky finish. This is a great drink now from a very good vintage for quality and it will age well for up to five years, possibly longer. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal sulphur.

Commercial description

With our Chardonnay we give a maceration of the whole bunches before pressing which increases the amount of grape solids in the juice to give greater intensity of varietal character and structure. Once fermentation is finished we add small amounts of sulphur at each topping to preserve the freshness and fruitfulness of the wine. We do not stir the lees or allow the wine to go through malolactic fermentation. 

Man O? War Chardonnay exhibits intense ripe stone fruit characters with subtle hints passionfruit seed and a nutty lees influence.

source- Luna Estate

This new addition to the Esk Valley stable of wines is a lighter, more fragrant expression of Syrah, which represents a bit of a style departure from its siblings made from grapes grown on the Gimblett Gravels.
In this case, the wine is made from grapes grown on a 1.1 hectare vineyard at the top of The Terraces Vineyard at Bay View, just north of Napier city. The warmth of the limestone soils and the cooling sea breezes combine to ripen Syrah grapes slowly with hot days and cool nights, providing floral aromas supported by depth of dark fruit, black olive and fleshy red fruit notes. All grapes were hand picked and fermented as a mix of whole cluster bunches and destemmed fruit in a single concrete fermenter with wild yeasts. 

It’s made in small volumes and will age for up to and beyond 10 years.

From Amoise...

This Pinot Noir (*label information below) was my first pick from the Two Terraces vineyard in the Mangatahi Terraces, Hawke’s Bay.  Ian and Linda Quinn are conscientious and detail oriented growers with the quality of their grapes being exceptional.

After a carbonic maceration, where there is no crushing of the grapes and fermentation occurs within the berries, the wine was pressed to tank and was a beautiful garnet colour. The following day I opened the valve of the tank and much to my surprise a pink hibiscus coloured wine came flowing out! Totally unexpected, and at first I was panicked, but as I tasted the wine I enjoyed the complexity of flavours: red currants, strawberries and pomegranate with a textural finish.

This wine is perfect for summer, I definitely recommend to drink cold or lightly chilled. Also a great food wine! Spicy foods, charcuterie, fish, grilled veggies and cheese. At 11.5% it is your ultimate picnic wine.

No additions at any stage, including sulphur. The wine is unfiltered and unfined. The grapes are certified organic and my rows have been farmed biodynamically since 2020.

After this wine was labelled, we became aware that the grapes used in making this wine, that we believed to be Gamay, were actually Pinot noir. This was identified following DNA testing of the grapevines. While we labelled this wine in good faith, this news means that the label is incorrect, and this wine is actually a Pinot noir. This wine is sold on the basis that the labelled grape variety is incorrect (the label is correct in all other aspects). Due to this unique situation, we are selling our stock that has already been labelled, while making sure that customers are made aware of this issue. If you have any questions about this issue, please contact amy@amoisewines.co.nz.

Carrick Pinot Gris is a dry, fleshy wine with impressive weight and texture in the mouth. It's made using whole bunch fermentation with wild yeasts with lees stirring to enhance complexity in the wine, 60% of which was fermented in older French oak barrels with lees aging for six months.

This is a lovely structural white wine that sits nicely in the glass, perfect as a late afternoon aperitif.

The nose has rich and dense aromatics, that remind me of Magnolia and Michaelia flowers, perfumed but also creamy and filling. It is not easy to detect individually defined aromatics, the nose is more complex and interwoven with ripe fruits and dried fig, marzipan. There is an exuberance and youthfulness that keeps the wine fresh and springy.

On the palate, this wine is all about texture, weight, length and generosity. It is a full-bodied wine that rolls over the palate with lots of creamy, spicey texture on the mid-palate. The wine delivers a highly refined impact experience that lingers for a long time.

You might be surprised with the character and firm presence of this wine. It delivers class with plenty of impact.

WINEMAKING Hand-harvested fruit was pressed the following day, cold. After a light settling, the juice was racked into a large 1000litre oak Cuve, for a spontaneous ferment. The fermentation was long and slow until December, the wine remained in the Cuve until the 2024 harvest started. It was then transferred into a stainless-steel vessel to retain freshness for another 4 months of maturation on lees. 

TECHNICAL INFORMATION Vineyard source(s): McCreanor Vineyard, 37 Princess Street, Martinborough, NZ Harvest dates: 6 April – 11 April       |     Harvest Brix: 26 Brix Alcohol by Volume: 14%     |     pH 3.77      |     TA: 5.4 g/l

Superb savoury Central Otago Pinot Noir with fragrant perfumed flavours of red cherries, cranberries and wild thyme, made from hand picked grapes grown on the Te Kano estate vineyard in Bannockburn, home to the winery's new cellar door and tasting room.

The grapes are fermented in separate vineyard lots then blended together and the finished wine is aged in French oak for 10 months, developing spicy notes which complement the wine's red cherry, red berry and wild thyme flavour notes. 

It's dry and medium bodied with a smooth soft character.

Central Otago at its liveliest and at an affordable price.

‘Luta’, is a wine producer based in Nelson and the name is derived from Lutum, which is Latin for clay and pays reference to the Moutere clays of which the grapes are grown.

Bright, fresh aromatics of tamarillo, strawberry, cherry, violet and a hint of old wood. This wine is plump and fleshy with bright red fruits dominating the palate. Tamarillo, blueberry and vanilla pod linger on the palate while being rounded out with soft plush tannin.

All clones were destemmed and fermented together in a stainless steel tank for 6 days then pressed and left to finish fermentation in tank before being transferred to a mixture of old French barrique, puncheon (70%) and stainless steel (30%), for maturation.

This wine was aged on fine lees for 10 months before being racked and blended in stainless steel and aged for a further 6 months and bottled in October 2022.

Big brassy Sauvignon Blanc from Nelson with oodles of gooseberry and grassy notes. 

Great wine from a great vintage in Hawke's Bay, which translates into ripe, dark, spiced fruit characters in this Syrah, which forms part of the stable of wines in Church Road's 1 Series.  

Winemaker Chris Scott describes it as a "Wine built around a core of brambly dark berry fruit, carrying lifted aromatic notes of violets and mulling spices, along with complexities of new leather and subtle toasty, savoury oak undertones. The palate is fine and long with a fine grained tannin structure and excellent mid palate flesh giving a very even, long and seamless mouthfeel. While approachable now, good Hawkes' Bay Syrah will age gracefully for 20 years of more."

Here here. A keeper.

This wine is from a BioGro certified organic and Demeter certified biodynamic estate vineyard located in the Bendigo subregion of Central Otago. The vineyard was first planted in 1998 and the Gruner Veltliner added in 2008. The soils on the beautiful north facing slope are Waenga fine sandy loam and Letts steepland soil with an elevation of 217 - 264 metres, on 44.55° south.

The wine is intensely golden-yellow in colour and the nose is an elegant combination of dried apricot and tropical fruit, followed by a hint of chestnuts. 

The palate offers flavours of toffee, vanilla and juniper berry, with typical Grüner peppery notes coming through. It is a well-structured, dry wine with balanced acidity, best enjoyed with a fried chicken salad or a hearty goulash.