The vineyards selected for this wine are Huia Rapaura vineyard and Rose family Kennedy vineyard. 

The grapes were hand-harvested, whole bunch pressed. Juice was racked off to barrels for fermentation  where a warm, fast ferment was encouraged. Base wine underwent full malolactic fermentation. Aged on gross lees in neutral French oak for 14 months. Wine is put on tirage where yeast and sugar is added before bottling. Second fermentation occurred in bottle and the  wine aged on lees for a further 20 months. Hand riddled over 5 weeks and disgorged on 6th December 2021. 

Senses 

Sight: cured salmon pink. 

Smell: Strawberries, cherries and baked bread. 

Taste: Fresh, wild strawberries and strawberry shortcake with a crisp finish. 

Food Matches: Goats cheese platters. Saffron risotto. Proper Crisps with Marlborogh Seasalt

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.

A complex Martinborough Pinot Noir made by wine maker Paul Mason that offers aromas of soft red and dark cherry and plum, complemented by hints of exotic spice and earthiness. On the palate, the wine is tight and structured, laced with spicy, savoury notes and a lingering, herbal acidity.

One of our best selling bubblies and for great reason' this is a stunner with creamy smooth flavours and gorgeous zesty bubbles. This sparkling wine is made 100% from Chardonnay grapes grown in Hawke's Bay, which were trucked down to the northern Wairarapa winery, Matahiwi Estate, where winemaker Miles Dineen worked his magic to produce this dreamy creamy bubbly. 

This wine is made in the mould of a blanc de blancs (white of whites) champagne, using Chardonnay grapes from the Dartmoor Valley in Hawke's Bay. The wine gains its richness from lees ageing, which enhances  creaminess and yeasty aromatics. It's a deliciously lemon citrusy wine with depth, complexity and character - outstanding value at the  price.

Our best value pink bubbly and made from Pinot Noir grapes grown in the Northern Wairarapa at Matahiwi Estate vineyards. Free run juice was used to make this dry, flavoursome sparkling wine; tank fermentation provides depth of bubbles and a yeasty freshness, which adds complex flavours. 

Valli Riesling is inspired by the great whites of the Mosel Valley in Germany. Winemaker Grant Taylor describes this vintage as having flavours of freshly squeezed lime juice, Granny Smith apple with hints of chalk and jasmine flower. 

Valli Wines was founded by Central Otago winemaker Grant Taylor in 1998 and has since become one of the most collectible Pinot Noir brands in New Zealand with four distinctly different Pinot Noirs made every year from four key sub regions in Central Otago. Grant is the only winemaker producing a consistently diverse range of wines every vintage with each wine made the same way so that the wines each express the climate and soil variations in the areas from which they come from.

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

Established in 1864 by Jean Désiré Féraud, Monte Christo is the birthplace of Central Otago wine. Our wines are made with 100% estate-grown fruit sourced from our vineyards across three distinct sub-regions, the Alexandra Basin, Bannockburn and Pisa. Utilising sustainable farming practices and minimal intervention methods in the winery, the outcome is elegant, refined, and impeccably balanced wines epitomising the terroir of Central Otago.

Tasting note An elegant yet complex Chardonnay with fresh lemon, green pear, white peach, hawthorn flowers, river rock and subtle baking spices.

VINEYARDS Vineyard: Davishon (69%) 

Subregion: Alexandra Basin 

Elevation: 160m 

Clone(s): 6, Mystery clone 

Soil: Blackmans alluvial sand, silt and gravels derived from schist and sandstone

WINEMAKING 

Brix: 21.6 

Fermentation: Wild yeasts in 72%  neutral oak and 28% stainless steel, 100% malolactic  

Aging: 11 months in 72% neutral French oak, 28% stainless steel 

Larry McKenna loves a Chardonnay made in a fresh, crisp style with creamy texture but balanced by bright acidity, a medium to full body and a long finish. So, if big buttery Chardonnays are your thing, this wine will meet your hopes in a textural fashion. Which is another way of saying, try this great white made in a fresh style.

It's made from grapes grown on Te Muna Road, Martinborough, which were planted in 1999. The wine goes through malolactic fermentation with lees stirring to enhance texture and it aged for 11 months in French oak, 20% of it new.

Commercial description

The ancient, dark-skinned grape variety from Georgia delivers wines that command attention and, at our tiny yield level, devotion. At such concentration, Saperavi with its natural high level of fruit sugar, tannin and acidity turns in a seductive powerhouse like no other wine. Complex, multi-dimensional, structured, and elegant - a wine to truly cherish.

This wine will bring the most critical wine lover to wine heaven. The gorgeous intense, inky colour metamorphoses into a savoury lusciousness. One of the tasting team called it a sexy Georgian in a glass. Deep, rich and packed with black fruit almost jumping out of the glass. Maturing in new barrels refined the powerful tannins to a classy elegance. Rich and complex, multi-layered with an staggering backbone of fruit, acidity and tannin, each sip giving you more and more pleasure. A dazzling wine experience for a wine to cherish. Tasted July 2022.

The Bilancia Syrah is sourced from a single vineyard on Roy's Hill, Hawke's Bay. This is a very fruit forward, bright wine with floral complexity on the nose and a spicy, youthful palate.

VINEYARDS Parcels of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were hand-picked from selected sites on the  gravel soils of the old Ngaruroro River, and old vine Merlot from the Bridge Pa region.  Bridge Pa Triangle soils feature fine silt loam over red metal gravels, while the gravel sites protected by Roys Hill, feature gravel over fine silt. These sites are free draining and low in fertility, resulting in struggling vines producing fruit of great concentration. Low yielding vines, open canopy management, managed irrigation and Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand farmed were common to all sites. Bridge Pa Merlot delivers ripe, dark plums which compliments the spicy brighter fruits from the gravels. Cabernet thrives on gravel sites and contributes structure, acidity and fragrant berry fruit notes. 

WINEMAKING Batches of hand harvested fruit was chilled overnight before processing the following day. Chilled bunches were hand sorted and de-stemmed, and whole berries were transferred to open fermenters with some foot stomping. Whole bunches were also incorporated in some of the Merlot fermenters. The berries were cold soaked before fermentation, with pumping over twice per day then pressed to barriques at the  end of fermentation. The Merlot and Cabernet matured for 21 months in new and  seasoned French oak barriques. Blended in December 2019 and bottled in January  2020, the final blend is approximately 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. 

SENSORY An elegant Merlot Cabernet blend which exhibits lifted aromatics of fragrant  berry fruits, sweet French oak, and underlying lavender and thyme. Complex and  textural, seamless tannins harmoniously support red and black fruits, earthiness,  and spice. Tautly poised to develop beautifully with bottle age.

Potiki is Maori for 'last born' and is the apt and evocative name for the newest Chardonnay from Ata Rangi in Martinborough. Fleshy, full bodied and bone dry (as the best Chardonnays are), this is a stunning new wine with richness and balanced acidity adding length to every crisp and succulent sip.

Kumeu River Wines and the owners, the Brajkovich family, are icons of the New Zealand wine industry. This Chardonnay consistently over delivers for its modest price tag and is a dry, medium bodied wine with nutty, fresh, savoury elements derived from fermentation in old French oak barriques for 80% of the wine with the balancing 20% in stainless steel to preserve freshness. 

This wine is great drinking now as a fab go-to wine, any time.

Kumeu River Wines began life as San Marino Wines in 1944 when Croatian immigrant couple, Mick and Katé Brajkovich, bought a small property with a vineyard on it. Their descendents now own and run Kumeu River Wines, which produces 250,000 bottles of wine annually from its owns 30 hectares of vineyards in Kumeu and from another 10 hectares, owned by local grape growers. 

An elegant Syrah from Hawke's Bay winemaker Kate Radburnd, whose extensive experience of making Syrah brings out the best in this exotic spicy French grape variety. Red fruit aromas are supported here by a velvet smooth backbone of fine tannins. Pure fruited and fragrant, with blueberry and cardamon spice. This Syrah has lingering length and persistence of flavour, a hallmark of this variety.

This delicious, dark and juicy new release is made from hand harvested Syrah grapes, which were destemmed and fermented in open tops with some foot stomping. Some whole bunches were incorporated in the ferment.