Black Estate - This Riesling is grown on the rolling slopes of our Damsteep Vineyard.  The site's dense clay and mineral limestone provide weight, texture and salivating freshness.  A true character.

Delicious Riesling with gorgeously well balanced flavours of freshly picked crunchy green apples, lime zest and a ripe peachy note, all adding complexity to an incredibly beautiful expression of Riesling from this country's biggest wine region - Marlborough. 

This wine is made from a combination of hand and machine harvested fruit which was fermented at cool temperatures to retain fruit freshness as well as 11.6 grams per litre of residual sugar, nicely balanced by bright tasty acidity. It's a succulent little number which rocks a lime zest flavour and drinks beautifully now but can age for at least a decade. 

Whitehaven Wines began life in 1994 as a romantic business for a couple of corporate escapees, Sue and Greg White, who had given up life in the rat race of Auckland for another kind of life aboard their yacht. When sailing around the country, they took shelter in the Marlborough Sounds from Pacific storms and fell in love with the region. An easy thing to do when harbouring in the spectacularly pristine waters of the Sounds. They decided to settle there on terra firma once more and try their hands at wine production, hiring a winemaker and beginning a business which has now been around for 26 years. Greg has sadly passed away now, leaving a legacy as well as his wife and daughter, Sam, to run the winery. Their winemaker is Peter Jackson.

Superbly refreshing, floral aromas with lime and honeysuckle. Off-dry, with a balanced acidity, fresh mineral flavours and a hint of apple
Great for that summer lunch

Cameron Douglas MS 93/100
A lovely wine in an off-dry expression. Aromas and flavours of green apple and lemon pith, honeysuckle and lime-flower. The sweetness is perfectly placed against a backdrop of acidity and ripe citrus and apple flavours. Balanced and well made, crisp and lengthy, a great aperitif style for Summer 2024.

Bob Campbell MW 93/100
"Medium-dry riesling with saline/oyster shell, lemon blossom, lime, and wild flower flavours. Initial sweetness is balanced by refreshing acidity which helps drive a lingering finish and creates mouth-tingling tension. Intense wine with cellaring potential"

Off-dry and simply delicious! Our pick for serious Riesling connoisseurs. The fruit character of the Southern Valleys is balanced by the minerality of the river gravels, all wrapped up in a dry, crisp acidity. 10+ years of aging potential if you have the self-control but drinking exceptionally well now.

Vinification
The grapes were machine harvested in the cool of the morning, cold settled and cool fermented in stainless steel tanks before blending and finishing for bottling in spring.

Analysis at bottling

pH 3.09 | T.A. 7.35 g/l | RS 4.5 g/l | Alcohol 12.5%

Black Estate - This Riesling is grown on the rolling slopes of our Damsteep Vineyard.  The site's dense clay and mineral limestone provide weight, texture and salivating freshness.  A true character.

Tasting Notes
Nectarine stone, honey dew and lemon zest on the nose lead to a rich creamy texture, finishing with freshness and poise. A fantastic aperitif style that is also well matched with richer dishes of cheese, pork, charcuterie, seafood and poultry.
About the Wine
Grown at Red Bank Vineyard, Alexandra and featuring the Proprietor’s Grandfather, Sydney Neill Wine Merchant, on the label, Picnic Riesling is our perennial favourite and a wonderful introduction to the pleasure of Central Otago Riesling. We think it is just as much a dinner wine as a luncheon – equally enjoyable at home outdoors, as at the Captain’s Table. Hand harvested and crafted in to a delicious refreshing off-dry style appealing to just about everyone on the planet.

Vintage Comments
A mild, wet 2022 winter meant soils held a lot of water going into the spring and inter-row companion crops including clover, phacelia and barley got off to a strong start. Early spring was very cold and then as spring warmed up in November shoot growth was strong. Flowering started the first week in December and fruit set was considered good on most blocks. Mid-summer heat was high and growing degree days were above 2022 and on par with 2019 by the end of the season.

Picking dates were moving forward until the second half of March when the heat ran out and the final ripening was slow and cool. Harvest started on the 27th of March at Red Bank Vineyard and finished on the 21st of April at The First Paddock, Gibbston. Cropping levels were just short of the optimum 2022 crop.

VINEYARD MANAGEMENT - Soils are schist based gravelly loams. Own roots – cane cuttings from Felton Road. Single cane, one bunch per shoot and very close planted at 5500 vines per hectare. Both shoot and lateral thinned to reduce crop load. Leaves that expose the grapes when ripening are also plucked off to increase sunlight exposure in to the vine canopy. Hand harvested.

WINE MAKERS NOTES - Hand harvested on the 17th April 2023 at 21 Brix and whole bunch pressed, meaning that the press was loaded with the grapes as intact bunches, versus removing the stems first. This pressed juice was then steeped on those skins (in wine language we call that ‘skin contact’) for 14 hours to extract aromatics and flavour and then it was inoculated with yeast and fermented to ‘just off-dry’ wine. We then left the wine sitting in tank on its lees (spent yeast cells that boost body and complexity) for three months before bottling. Please note the International Riesling scale on the back label.

This medium styled RIesling is produced by Greystone Wines, a family owned winery in the Waipara Valley, the heart of North Canterbury. Greystone is one of North Canterbury's wine stars situated on the slopes of limestone rich hills in Omihi. All of the grapes that go into Greystone wines are 100% certified organic with BioGro NZ and all are estate grown. No additional fruit is purchased to supplement production, which is one of many incremental steps that go into Greystone's high quality wines. 

Greystone Riesling is one of our faves here in store and is a medium style with a nice balance of 23 grams per litre of residual sugar, which off sets the bright acidity and ensures that the overall flavours and style of the wine works in harmony. It contains 13% ABV and was made from grapes that contained a relatively low 8% botrytis, which adds weight and flesh to the wine. 

Certified organic with BioGro NZ.

About Greystone

The Greystone wine story began in 2000 when the Thomas Family bought an old sheep farm on the Omihi hills in the Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. The rolling limestone hills lured this family in and their goal was a single minded one: to make great wines from the limestone rich soils here. Fast forward 20 years and Greystone is one of the great (and, some might say, yet to be fully discovered) wineries in this outstanding wine region. Not least due to the work of winemaker Dom Maxwell and general manager Nick Gill, who began working together in 2005 and has grown along with the brand and quality. 

The name Mon Cheval is in homage to the owner's champion racehorse, Under Cover Lover, whose winning ways helped the dream of making wine possible. The 2.2 hectare vineyard is found at the entrance to Weka Pass in North Canterbury, and is planted with Pinot Noir and only a small amount of Riesling.

Tasting Notes
Lime blossom, orange rind, white lotus flower and schist mineral notes on the nose lead to a spicy tightly textured palate expressing gorgeous poise, drive and balance.
About the Wine
An estate grown, single block selection made from grapes grown at our Two Paddocks’ Red Bank Vineyard in Alexandra, Central Otago, our Dry Riesling is a thought provoking expression of this location. A balance of acidity and dryness means it’s a perfect fit for food matches - the perfect counter-balance to a creamy pasta dish like a cabonara, the fresh saltiness of Oysters kilpatrick and holds its own against vibrant and spicy Asian dishes.

Vintage Comments
A mild, wet 2022 winter meant soils held a lot of water going into the spring and inter-row companion crops including clover, phacelia and barley got off to a strong start. Early spring was very cold and then as spring warmed up in November shoot growth was strong. Flowering started the first week in December and fruit set was considered good on most blocks. Mid-summer heat was high and growing degree days were above 2022 and on par with 2019 by the end of the season.

Picking dates were moving forward until the second half of March when the heat ran out and the final ripening was slow and cool. Harvest started on the 27th of March at Red Bank Vineyard and finished on the 21st of April at The First Paddock, Gibbston. Cropping levels were just short of the optimum 2022 crop.

VINEYARD MANAGEMENT - Crafted from a tiny half-hectare block of clone 110 at Two Paddocks Red Bank Vineyard at Earnscleugh, Central Otago, which consistently produces the ripest and most intense Riesling on the estate. All grapes are grown using organic principles, hand harvested and fermented in stainless steel.

The soils in this block are well draining schist loam and the vines tend to thrive. Additionally, the hot day time temperatures that Alexandra experiences over summer encourages riper stone fruit flavours, until late afternoon when the ‘Roxburgh Doctor’ wind arrives and causes a dramatic drop in temperature and hence the significantly cooler nights that the region is known for.

WINE MAKERS NOTE: Whole bunch pressed and then a light racking before fermentation. An indigenous fermentation which took 5 weeks at between 14-21 degrees Celsius. The wine was then held on light lees until it was racked and filtered for clarity and stabilisation prior to bottling.

This wine is a labour of love and was made from hand picked grapes grown on the organically certified Ashmore Vineyard in Fairhall, Marlborough. A combination of spontaneous yeast and inoculated ferments (50/50) were taken to 12.5% ABV and residual sugar of 19.5 grams per litre, which makes this wine medium dry in style. It tastes like lemon zest and fresh ripe Granny Smith apples on speed… a gorgeous refreshing, full bodied Marlborough white wine made from one of the greatest grapes on Earth. 

A must try. 

Great Central Otago Riesling in a medium dry, succulent, deliciously drinkable style with flavours of lime zest and lemon. Dicey Wines is owned by the Dicey brothers, Matt and James, whose parents were pioneers of viticulture and winemaking in Bannockburn, Central Otago, when they co-founded Mt Difficulty Wines.

An exceptional, fruit forward, but complex, organically certified Sauvignon Blanc from one of the greatest vineyards in Marlborough - The Settlement Vineyard. This is a large, certified organic site on a sloping hillside in Marlborough's southern valleys. 

Dry, full bodied, iconoclastic Riesling from New Zealand's king of spatlese styles, Mat Donaldson and his winemaking team at Pegasus Bay Winery, which is New Zealand's greatest Riesling producer. 

This wine, Bel Canto, is the queen of the winery's Riesling range. It is bone dry with 5 grams per litre of residual sugar due to high brix (grape sugars) at harvest time and a small percentage of noble rot (also known as botrytis). It drinks well now and can age for the long term; up to and beyond 10 years. 

Extended hang time on the vines has resulted in the intensely ripe, tropical fruit flavours in the grapes which were picked to retain refreshing, high but balanced acidity. The free run juice was fermented slowly at cool temperatures to retain fruit characters and varietal purity. Alcoholic fermentation was left to continue until residual sugar of 5 g/l was achieved. Retention of a little of natural carbon dioxide gives spritz character to add liveliness and accentuate freshness.

Made by Mt Edward winery co-owner, winemaker and Riesling devotee Duncan Forsyth, whose focus is on dry Rieslings. This is a super tasty with with complex fresh aroma spectrum and flavours of lemons, limes, and grapefruit, underpinned by the freshness of sorbet and a lingering dry finish. 

Grapes were whole bunch pressed and fermented in stainless steel barrels and stainless tanks with wild yeasts, no temperature control and lees aging for three months.

Tasting Note:

 A pure and exact expression from these venerable vines in their 32nd season. Grown on free-draining alluvial soils, the fruit from this block yields a wine with characteristic delicacy and precision. Beguiling notes of elderflower, mint and kiwifruit waft over a palate that is perfectly poised; the balance of sugar and acid is so harmonious as to integrate both components into the wine in their entirety. Fresh, filigree, and weightless. 

Introduction:

 Commencing with meticulous site selection and vineyard design in 1991, Felton Road's story is one of refusal to compromise. A strict 100% estate policy with fully organic and biodynamic viticulture (BioGro and Demeter certified) ensures that our fruit arrives at the winery as pure as it can be, while our entire estate comes as close to true sustainability as is possible. A commitment to hands off winemaking: gravity flow; indigenous yeasts and malolactic; an avoidance of fining and filtration; all help preserve the wine's expression of its terroir. The result is Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir which accurately express the authenticity and complexity of our unique vineyards. Gareth King; Viticulturist, Blair Walter; Winemaker, Nigel Greening; Proprietor. 

Vineyard & Viticulture:

 Felton Road farms four properties totaling 34 ha in the Bannockburn subregion of Central Otago. Blocks 2 and 4 are located on gravel fans within the Elms Vineyard with deep soils of angular schist gravels. Meticulous summer management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity. Shoot thinning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning and harvest are all carried out by hand to ensure optimum quality fruit. Cover crops are planted between rows to assist in vine balance and to improve soil health and general biodiversity.

Vintage:

 Abundant rain in September and October replenished soil-water reserves. After a later than average budbreak, the vines grew well until a katabatic frost, the most extensive in twenty years, struck the vineyards on 3 November. Fortunately, losses were localised within vineyards and occurred early enough in the season for many vines to recover. A benign, settled period coincided with flowering and a successful fruit set did much to compensate for the damage from the frost. Summer saw even temperatures and a protracted dry period, which served to slow down ripening and concentrate flavours. After February finished with a warm flourish, the weather cooled distinctly, especially at night. Harvest was a game of patience, particularly for Riesling. The slow and measured conclusion of ripening has endowed the wines with an impressive breadth to complement their characteristic vibrancy. 

Vinification: 

Riesling from Block 4 of The Elms vineyard was carefully hand-picked, whole bunch pressed, settled for 5-7 days before racking, then fermented with indigenous yeasts. The 2 week fermentation was stopped by chilling when the optimal balance was achieved between the acidity, alcohol and residual sugar (56g/L). Careful winemaking with minimal processing highlights the crisp natural acidity and the Riesling characters are delicately poised in the low alcohol of 9.5%.