Stone fruits and green fruits such as pear and apple combine beautifully with some phenolic texture in this luscious wine.

Tasting Notes Technical Data Muscat 2024 Nose – Apricot. Nectarine. Jasmine. Alc 14.5% Palate – Intense. Bright. Clean. TA 5.2g/L Drink – over the next 8 years RS 0.1g/L pH 3.73 Harvest date 29.4.24

A dry aromatic Muscat from a cool Gibbston vineyard managed by James. Left hanging late for ripeness and lifted aromatics, wholebunch pressed, wild fermented to dryness, and aged 10 months on gross lees. Hand-bottled unfined and unstabilised—may form natural crystals; best served at room temperature to show texture and aromatics.

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.

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. 

This is one of New Zealand's most popular white wines made 100% from our most planted red grape, Pinot Noir. It's a dry, fresh and medium bodied white made from hand picked Pinot Noir grapes grown at Wooing Tree's home block vineyard in Cromwell, Central Otago. Minimal skin contact and stainless steel fermentation retains freshness and a light zesty flavour and character. 

Patsy was the favourite aunt of winemaker Jenny Dobson, who made this wine as a tribute to her. We're big fans of the story as well as the wine, which is made from the  Cabernet Franc grape, which adds a touch of firm tannin to its finish, accentuating the dry style and adding grip and structure. 

This tasty little numberh drinks well on its own but also tastes great with salmon and fresh summer salads. Chill lightly and enjoy. 

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.

A field blend of organically grown Sauvignon Blanc (33%), Riesling (33%) and Gewurztraminer (33%). Hand harvested and whole bunch fermented as one and left to its own devices and in peace until bottling with no additions apart from a touch of sulphur dioxide – 100 % orange.

Field Notes:
Vineyard | Brawn Vineyard Estate
Picked | 27th March 2024 a Leaf Day
Skin Time | 108 days
Alcohol | 12%
TA | 4.5
pH | 3.66
RS | 0
Colour | orange
Palate | breakfast negroni impersonator | fresh | saline | juicy tannins
Ben Says | “Perfect late at night at the bar with quiet conversation, thoughtful prose and slightly secret intent”
Bottle Date | 6th November 2024 a Fruit Day
Bottles | 4945

This is Astrolabe winemaker Simon Waghorn's delicious take on Albarino and it's made from grapes grown in a quirky location, to say the very least. All grapes in this wine were hand picked from their coastal home at Kekerengu, south of Blenheim. It is the southernmost vineyard in the Marlborough region and only Astrolabe makes wine from the small vineyards planted there. This cool location provides slighter higher acidity and zestiness to the wines made from there.

Whole bunch pressing and fermentation on solids followed by lees aging provide this wine with depth and body, which balances the naturally high acidity that is innate to the Albarino grape - a native grape to north west Spain and Portugal and now at home in New Zealand. 

Flavours in this wine are all about green apples and lemon with a green olive note on its dry finish. 

This is the ultimate wine to drink with seafood on a hot day.

The story of Astrolabe

Diversity, history and family ownership are among the reasons to try the outstanding range of wines from Astrolabe, which was founded in 1996 in Marlborough by winemaker Simon Waghorn and his partner in life and wine, Jane. 

Simon has forged a reputation for being one of New Zealand's most respected producers of aromatic white wines after winning an almost embarrassingly long string of awards for his Sauvignon Blancs. He has also forged a name for adventurously diverse winemaking - he produces dry flinty whites from the most southern vineyard in Marlborough at Kekerengu on the coast about an hour's drive south of Blenheim. He is the only winemaker to produce wines from here. 

He is also one of the few in this country to make Albarino, Chenin Blanc and a consistently outstanding range of wines from the organically certified hillside sloping site that is the Wrekin Vineyard in Marlborough. 

The winery remains family owned and is now run by two generations, including Simon and Jane as well as their adult daughters. 

The 2025 release clocks over a decade of crafting this irresistible, sun-soaked Albariño - still utterly moreish, still mouthwatering, still our unofficial taste of summer.

Think warm evenings, bare feet, and salt on your skin.
A lifted nose of lime zest, sea spray and that first breath when you step onto the beach. The palate echoes the aromatics, woven together with bright, crystalline acidity that gives the wine its signature savoury edge.

Hints of oyster shell, fresh fennel and a cool, saline minerality glide through the glass, all wrapped in a dreamy, sun-drenched haze. There’s beautiful form here - poised, graceful, quietly luxurious.

Vineyard:

Site: Rosie’s Block - Upper Moutere, Nelson

Aspect: 90m Elevation, North Facing

Soil Type: Moutere Clay Gravels

Soil Composition: Deep sandy loam with clay content (19%). Little stone content.

Vineyard Established: 1999

Farming: Dry Farmed

Variety: 100% Albariño

Clonal Selection: 635, 636, 637

Hand Harvested: 100%

Seasonal Detail: The season began dry before shifting to a wetter-than-usual October, with an exceptionally warm December bringing ideal flowering conditions. While the Christmas and early January period posed some challenges, a return to warm, settled weather through February and March improving ripening. Occasional rain showers kept canopies refreshed, leading to a smooth, trouble-free harvest. The season produced wines of both volume and generosity.

Winemaking:

Harvest: 29th - 31st March 2025

Processing: 70% whole bunch press, 30% crushed fruit. Cool settled for 48 hours and racked

Fermentation: 100% Wild Yeast

Fermentation Vessel: 70% Stainless Steel, 30% Neutral Puncheon

Malolactic: None

Fining: None Filtration: Sterile Vegan: Yes

Bottling Analysis: 13.5% Alc, 3.29 pH, 6.7 g/L TA, 3 g/L RS

Full Bottle Weight: 1,265 g

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!

Arneis and Pinot Gris sourced from the Dolce Vista vineyard. Hand harvested Arneis barrel fermented and aged. Pinot Gris fermented on skins and then pressed to seasoned oak. Blended and bottled after 12 months in barrel. Delicate white flowers and peach, intense citrus with minerality and rich texture.

The home of Akitu 

Andrew Donaldson planted his vineyard with 100% Pinot Noir in 2002 and has since developed three distinctive styles of wine from this great red grape variety. Two reds (Akitu A 1 and Akitu A2) lead the production while a Pinot Blanc is now part of the high quality stable of wines from this producer. 

Donaldson employs winemaker P J Charteris to make the wines. 

At Mt Barker, in New Zealand's South Island, in a high glacial valley of sunshine and rain shadow on the edge of the earth, each season leave its own vivid imprint on our vintage.  Extreme temperature variations, alpine air, altitude, adversity... all the wild elements of this exhilarating land combine in a Pinot Noir of great quality from the world's southernmost wine region.