Pinot Gris

The evocative name Ruru pays homage to the native Moreporks, whose haunting call can be heard in the vineyard in which the grapes in this wine grow. This is a gorgeous expression of dry Pinot Gris from Central Otago, a region that is well suited to top notch examples of this white grape variety. The cool climate suits this grape well, resulting in refreshingly crisp examples. 

Clean and crisp, dry Pinot Gris from Marlborough that is predominantly fermented in stainless steel to preserve the bright green fruit flavours, but also has a portion that is fermented in barrel to provide texture and complexity. Five months on the lees also gives the wine further flavour and builds texture in the wine, adding weight and complex, smooth and notes of creamy flavour. 

Light and golden in colour. Fresh aromas of pear, toasted pine nuts, and lifted Turkish delight awaken your senses. Textured, structural, dry, fresh stone fruit roasted almond flavours mingle with fresh thyme and wild fennel. This multi-layered Pinot Gris is opulent yet clean, bright and juicy. The wine?s poised, beautiful texture leads to a well-balanced, persistent finish.

From Jules Taylor...

Forget what you think you know about Pinot Gris and try this tasty little treat. Jules conjures up some winemaker witchcraft to coax every last ounce of personality out of this subtle little grape. Modern clones combine with traditional wild ferments, barrel aging and lees stirring to supercharge the aromas and textures of this wine. The end result is a flavour-packed mouthful of peach and citrus with an elegant spicy dry finish: a wine that will keep everyone happy.

Bold, dry deliciousness and peachy perfection with just a hint of hint of spice come together in the perfect party pour.

This is a wonderfully exotic wine with aromas of flowers, pear and melon. The palate has nectarine and tropical fruit richness which is balanced with a smooth refreshing finish. Great on its own this Pinot Gris is incredibly versatile with a variety of food, our favourites being chilled furry peach and red curry mussels.

Vineyard
Fruit for this wine was selected from mature vineyards in the North Island that consistently produce outstanding Pinot Gris grapes. The 2021 vintage has delivered exceptional quality with low yields and a temperate dry growing season producing clean ripe fruit with great flavor intensity.

Winemaking
The focus in the winery is to capture the pure fruit flavours that come in from the vineyard. The grapes were harvested at optimum ripeness then gently pressed and the juice fermented at cool temperatures with selected yeasts to enhance aromatic potential. After ferment the wine rested on lees to enhance mouthfeel before blending and preparation for early bottling.

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

Tasting Notes
Nashi pear, nectarine, mead and spice greet the nose with a dry, textural and weighty palate, creating a complex and flavourful wine. Made in a dry style.

Vineyard
Moy Hall & Blue Earth vineyards
From low cropped 22 to 28-year-old vines

Vinification
Whole bunch pressed.

Pear, lime zest, almond and cream soda on the nose accentuated in a weighty, textural, aromatic Pinot Gris with fantastic cool climate freshness from a notably cool growing season.

This flavoursome white puts Pinot Gris' best foot forward and shows the high quality wine region of the Waitaki Valley in North Otago at its best.

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.