Pinot Gris, Viognier and Gewurztraminer join forces in this quirky white blend from a great Hawke’s Bay winery. These grapes are an aromatic bunch and when fermented dry offer a lush body and crisp long fresh finish.

One of New Zealand's most innovative and delicious white wines, Chiaroscuro is a co-fermented field blend of Pinot Gris, Riesling, Viognier and Gew?rztraminer, all harvested together and fermented together to create a wine of harmony where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Inspired by the great whites of the French Alsace winemaker Marcel Deiss. The name adds another twist to the story of this wine because it's an Italian word, meaning dark-light and referring to the contrast that the different grapes each bring to the table for this interesting full bodied dry white. 

Organic certification

The organic story at Seresin

One of the greatest things about Seresin Estate is the organic certification. This came relatively early on for Seresin, who was dismayed by the amount used and the impacts of man made chemicals, which were routinely and frequently sprayed on vines. His early adopting philosophy of organic certification paved a positive path for the integrity of the wines as well as leading others to follow suit.

A skin fermented field blend using the classic combination of Viognier, Marsanne and Muscat. Picked by hand, fermented and aged on skins for 200 days, aged in the Millton cellars and bottled on the property.

This wine is rich and sensual with an adoring complexity. It is cloudy from natural sediments and soft yet drying to the taste. It smells very clearly of its origins in terms of place and fruit. An exciting, lifted nose with cardamom spice, white stonefruit and tropical muscat floral notes. Complex in structure, with a gentle phenolic tension and underlying salinity. Once opened, this wine will last, even improve, for a number of days afterwards, so take your time, savour and drink in moderation, with love and gratitude, but always remember to keep another bottle handy!

This peachy, flavoursome, rich and full bodied dry white is Millton Vineyard's top Viognier, made from grapes grown on the steep slopes of the special, small and beautifully formed Clos de Ste Anne vineyard in Gisborne.

Certified organic and biodynamic. 

An absolute show stopper dry white wine made from the great Albarino grape - this wine has succulence, body and intense lemon, hazelnut and oatmeal flavours, all of which add to its full bodied appeal.
Thick skinned grapes in loose bunches with tiny berries are the story of the great white Albarino grape. These factors make it ideally suited to New Zealand?s maritime climate, which is similar to that of its homelands in north west Portugal and Spain. This grape?s intense acidity and later ripening combine to make a full bodied, dry, intensely deliciously succulent, refreshing white.
Winemaker Gordon Russell softens the high acidity by ageing the wine for one year in bottle in the cellar, pre release. He's also learning about optimum picking times, since it's still pretty early days for Albarino in New Zealand.

The wine is a small batch from the McKenzie vineyard. The grapes are harvested during late April and early May in excellent condition, pressed and cold settled to retain fruit flavour.

Winemakers Notes
With this being such a popular varietal these days, we were asked by our local distributor to produce one. As it turns out places like Japan and Canada are also hopping on this fresher, aromatic style. I fermented half in stainless steel tank with a selected organic yeast and the other half as wild ferments in 2 large puncheons. This provided both precision and funkiness making for a really unique expression of this grape.

Vineyard
Hawke's Bay is located on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The region enjoys dry summers with moderate, cool nights. This wine reflects a single vineyard Pinot Gris which was grown in the Eskdale Appellation of Hawke's Bay. The vineyard lies along the Esk River Valley about 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from the mouth that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The soils are a combination of silt and loam deposited from the river and heavier deposits at the foot of the Esk Valley Hills. The vineyard has begun its journey into organic farming with no weed sprays and the use of an under- vine mower.

Winemaking
This Pinot Gris was harvested with an average harvest Brix of 20.5 and picked with a fresh acidity to give the finished wine some finesse and keep the alcohol in balance.

We chose to machine harvest the fruit to give the juice time to soak freely on skins for about 6 hours before we pressed. The free-run juice and light pressings were fermented in stainless steel using an organic inoculated yeast and fermented slow and cool to relative dryness. The pressings went into 10 year old French puncheons (500 liter oak) where they fermented wild each with their own hint of sweetness and character left behind.

We are the only retail store in the country with an allocation of this outstanding dry Fiano and we sold out just prior to the cyclones. Winemaker Jenny Dobson has released another 12 bottles to us, but that?s it. The vineyard did survive the inclement weather intact, but volumes are likely to be down next year. She and we are big fans of Fiano, which originally comes from southern Italy. Her Hawke's Bay version has proven so successful that it sells out within days of arriving at Regional so she is planning to double production when the weather permits.

She has since made a 2014 Fiano from the Bush Hawk vineyard, which she now leases from owner Bryce Campbell, who planted the first 300 vines in 2010.

Fiano is an old grape variety from Campania in south west Italy, dating back to the 12^th Century, following which it widely planted but later fell out of favour due to being decimated by phylloxera in the late 1800s. Plantings of Fiano were sporadic in Italy until the 1940s when winemaker Antonio Mastroberadino made his first 30 bottles in 1945.

With a solid Silver at the Bragato Wine Awards this cheeky little Albarino offers distinctive fruit coupled with a hint of sweetness balanced by crisp acidity. A perfect match for paella.

A fruit salad of a wine! Passionfruit with white peach, apricot & a light smokiness.  A saline & refreshing acid profile with supple texture.

When I found out there was some Albari?o available from the Two Terraces vineyard I was so excited to work with such a refreshing and versatile variety! Already familiar with the quality of the fruit grown by Ian and Linda Quinn, as well as the care and attention to soil health, I did not hesitate to jump at the opportunity.

The whole bunches were hand harvested, de-stemmed and macerated on the skins for two weeks time. A very light daily hand plunge and the addition of my active vineyard starter yeast which fermented underneath the vines. Biodynamic preparations 500, CPP were applied to the soil through out the year, as well as silica quartz (501) to the canopy.

After fermentation was complete the free run juice Albari?o was pressed into a large spherical and small Tinajas for ageing on its lees.

Peachy, flavoursome, rich and full bodied, this dry white is The Millton Vineyard's top Viognier, made from grapes grown on the steep slopes of the special, small and beautifully formed Clos de Ste Anne vineyard in Gisborne.

This wine is certified organic and biodynamic. 

The 2020 vintage was superlative and is the first year since 2014 in which all five wines made from the Clos de Ste Anne vineyard have been produced. 

Whole bunch fermented blend of Riesling and Pinot Gris, which spent the first part of their wine journey in amphora with two months of skin contact, which results in the orange hue in this lovely refreshing dry wine. Softly white wine with grip and aromatic appeal, which ticks the vegan box. 

Certified organic  

The organic story at Seresin

One of the greatest things about Seresin Estate is the organic certification. This came relatively early on for Seresin, who was dismayed by the amount used and the impacts of man made chemicals, which were routinely and frequently sprayed on vines. His early adopting philosophy of organic certification paved a positive path for the integrity of the wines as well as leading others to follow suit.

Winemaker Jules Taylor is a champion of adventurous winemaking and grape varieties, such as Gruner Veltliner - and this is a fabulous dry white wine. The Gruner grape originally comes from Austria and is capable of a diverse style of wines, such as this refreshing aromatic and savoury wine. 

Sirius White is a blend of Chardonnay with a touch of Viognier and Marsanne fermented with indigenous yeasts and bacteria and is certified organic and biodynamic.

Winemakers James and Annie Millton were the first in the country to produce a certified organic wine in 1984 and have since pioneered biodynamic grape growing and winemaking practices, along with retaining a strong loyalty to lesser known great grape varieties, such as Marsanne and Viognier, among many others. 

We love the wines from this iconic producer.