NZ OTHER WHITES

Barrel fermented, dry style of Pinot Blanc which is aged for 11 months. What more could you ask for in an alternative white wine from Te Muna Road in Martinborough? Winemaker Larry McKenna models this Pinot Blanc on the great dry whites of Germany's Kaiserstuhl district where spicy wines are made to complement rich food. 

This wine is made from vines planted in 1999 on Te Muna Road in Martinborough. It's bone dry with less than one gram of residual sugar and the finished wine spent 11 months aging in barrel prior to bottling. It can age for up to five years and drinks well now too. 

The Milltons were the first in the country to produce organically certified wine and James Millton continues to pioneer environmentally sustainable wine production.

This organic Muscat is made from hand picked grapes, which were fermented and aged on their skins then bottled onsite at the Millton Vineyard's Winery where biodynamic production methods are used. It's rich in aroma with ripe mandarin and spice notes. It is made from dry farmed grapes and was bottled unfined and unfiltered, so it also ticks the vegan friendly box. 

Dry and delicious quirky white blend of  Chardonnay, Viognier and Chenin Blanc. Three well known white grapes that find a delicious equal footing of expression in this lovely dry, complex white which offers fab value for money. Dan Brennan began life in the music industry before turning his talents to winemaking.

Drink with toasted salty almonds for a fabulous contrast with the opulence of the wine. 

Hawke's Bay winemaker Grant Edmonds sources the Albarino grapes in this stunning wine from the Bridge Pa area of Hawke's Bay and wow, what a wine. 

Fresh, crisp, intensely flavoursome and every sip lingers, thanks to the Albarino grape's naturally high acidity which provides great flavour memory here. This is a stellar new addition to Edmonds' Redmetal wine brand.

Delicious and succulent in every sip. 

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.

In Te Reo Māori, Waikoa translates to happy waters.

The 2023 Waikoa is a return to a blend of varietals. Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc from friends who own the Grava vineyard. This wine brings me joy for its salivating deliciousness and makes me think of spring and summer sunshine filled days.

Partial whole cluster inclusion and wild fermentation, time on skins give it beautiful aromatics & texture. Karla & Alistair who farm Grava are BioGro certified organic! So good!

A perfumed nose of florals, citrus, wild fennel and honeydew in a beech forest during summer. The palate is driven by refreshing citrus fruits, lime & pink grapefruit and a long pithy textured palate.

Serve lightly chilled on a warm day or served with fresh kaimoana.

Hand harvested and whole bunch pressed into old oak and fermented with indigenous yeast before spending 14 months in barrel on the lees. This is round and unctuous as befitting similarly composed wines from the Rhone Valley with aromas and flavours of quince, jasmine peach and citrus. Will pair well with Asian cuisine. 

Kelly Washington wines are a collaboration of Simon Kelly and winemaker Tamra Washington, who source grapes from around Marlborough and other wine regions, looking for organic and biodynamically grown grapes. 

Seaspray Sauvignon Blanc is a beautiful tangy expression of New Zealand's most popular grape variety, only this time it's grown in the a coastal subregion of the windy Awatere Valley where the salty sea air provides its influence to the wines. This Sauvignon is bone dry after being fermented in stainless steel tanks with a little time on yeast lees to build weight and texture to the flavours of this lively wine. 

A stunner for Sauvignon lovers and those looking for a refreshing white. 

Deliciously smooth, textural Pinot Gris made with grapes grown in Hawke's Bay. All grapes were destemmed and fermented in amphora (clay vessels) from Spain with gentle hand plunging followed by 15 days of skin maceration to derive colour and flavoursome depth in the wine. The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

This dry white is made from Pinot Noir grapes, grown on Te Kano's Eliza Vineyard and fermented to almost bone dry with 2.5 grams residual sugar adding balance to the linear acidity in this wine. The grapes were given minimal skin contact during fermentation so that the colour is pale and the wine looks white but has depth of flavour, thanks to the earthy notes of the Pinot Noir. 

Flavours here are fresh with notes of nashi pear, peach and citrus blossom leading to a rich and fruity palate with concentrated flavours of peach and pear leading to a dry finish.

Three clones of Pinot Noir were used in this wine with clones 115, Abel, 5 and 6, all hand picked and whole bunch pressed with a cool and long fermentation in stainless steel used to preserve the delicate aromatic fruit flavours, followed by a brief time on light lees to build mid palate texture and depth.

An outstanding New Zealand Albarino with complex flavours of salty green olives, freshly picked Granny Smith apples and bright acidity, which adds a zesty note to the flavours of subtly savoury wine. It's rich and full bodied with mouthwatering crisp salivating acidity giving great balance, length and structure.

The Natural State wines are made by second generation Churton Estate winemakers, Ben and Jack Weaver, sons of the winery's founders, Sam and Mandy. This Field Blend combines Petit Manseng (extremely rare in New Zealand), Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc. All grapes were harvested on the same day and co-fermented then bottled, unfined, unfiltered with zero sulphur additions. 

Churton 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. His background is in microbiology and he was raised on a farm, so when he and his wife Mandy founded Churton Estate, it combined all of his passions. The couple and their adult sons, have created one of this country's most high quality small wineries, which lives 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 grapes are hand picked and natural yeasts ferment the majority of Churton wines. These incremental qualitative decisions impact at every step of their winemaking provides 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.

From the winery

"Our Field Blend wine is a unique expression of our Brookby Hill Vineyard situated on the steep slopes of Marlborough's Southern Valleys. The fruit is grown organically and harvest by hand from high-density planted vines that are 21 years old. The soil is composed of deep, cold clay covered by windblown loess. We selected Pinot Gris, Riesling, Viognier, and Pinot Noir grapes for their distinct flavour profiles to achieve a truly exceptional blend."

Hans and Therese Herzog winery established their winery in Marlborough in 1994 and have since gone on to produce some of the region's most diverse, high quality, small volume wines, including this blend of 50% Viognier, 30% Marsanne and 20% Roussanne, which were fully fermented to dryness in this spicy, peachy, full bodied white. This wine is modelled on the great whites of the northern Rhone in France and the wine takes its name for that region's famous Mistral wind which blows through the valley. 

Extended skin contact and cold maceration provide the colour intensity and flavour in this wine. The Marsanne and Roussanne were fermented together with wild yeasts in 500 litre puncheons then blended with the Viognier and aged in 500 litre French oak puncheons for 18 months. 

The finished wine was bottled without fining or filtration, so is vegan friendly.