This wine is pale lemon in colour with fragrant aromas of fresh apples, meyer lemons and a hint of almonds. The palate displays citrus characters with subtle floral characters and creamy texture with a crisp and refreshing finish. Opawa Pinot Gris is a versatile food wine and matches well with a variety of dishes especially lightly spiced Asian influenced cuisine.

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.

VINEYARD - The fruit from this wine was sourced from a single Waipara Valley vineyard.  The fruit is left on the vine to ripen until the berries start to lose moisture and shrivel, concentrating the flavours and producing a rich style of Pinot Gris. 

SOIL TYPE - Alluvial gravels

WINEMAKING - The fruit was hand-picked and meticulously hand sorted. The juice was fermented warm by indigenous yeasts in aged French oak barriques.

TASTING NOTES - Wonderfully fruited and fragrant, the bouquet shows mango, golden peach, poached pear and rich floral aromas, leading to a splendidly flavoursome palate offering opulent fruit flavours with spicy nuances, finishing long and delicious. Gorgeously styled with rich tones of ripe fruit intensity backed by juicy acidity. Sam Kim - Wine Orbit.

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. 

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.

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.

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

Pinot Gris for the Exiled comes from the St Helena clone of Pinot gris grown on both Waiheke and Ponui Islands. Lightly crushed and pressed then settled in tank before being racked with light solids into tank for fermentation. A mixture of un-inoculated and cultured yeast ferments are used with each vineyard fermenting slowly until the desired balance of acid, tannin and sugar is reached. The wines are then chilled to below zero to stop the fermentation before blending, the blend is held at low temperatures in the cellar until bottling to retain as much of the natural carbon dioxide as possible.

Off-dry in style.

VITICULTURE Selected from some of Hawke's Bay's finest vineyards, this sparkling wine was partially fermented in French oak barrels for 15 months for complexity of character. Central to the success of New Zealand as a world-renowned wine growing region is the temperate maritime climate and the freedraining alluvial soils. Cool nights and warm days retain acidity which lends freshness and vibrancy to the wines, highly characteristic of New Zealand wine styles. 

WINEMAKING Pinot Gris was picked from the Mission homeblock and very gently pressed. The juice was inoculated with specially developed, aromatic yeast strains to intensify varietal character development. A portion was fermented in French oak barrel for 15 months for complexity. After blending the cuvée, the wine underwent a secondary fermentation before bottling. 

TASTING NOTES - Zesty with delicate pear and apple and fine mousse. Grown on our historic vineyard, this sparkling wine was partially fermented in French oak barrels for 15 months for complexity of character. Aromas of delicate pear and apple with a zesty palate showing lemon, lime and nutty notes. 

CELLAR POTENTIAL Enjoy now or in the next one to two years. 

WINE ANALYSIS Alcohol 12.5% pH 3.25 Acidity 6.5 g/L Residual Sugar <9 g/L

From Skypunch vineyard, which lies on the slope next to Home vineyard on Black’s Ave.  We’re leasing and managing  Julianne and Conor’s vineyard here and we’re excited.  In conversion to organic with BioGro 5202.

Aromas of preserved lemon citrus, flint, almond, cardamon, and ginger. The palette is structured and vibrant with unique saline tension. Flavours of new season pear and apricot, white peach and vanilla bean. Un-fined, unfiltered.