Rabbit Ranch is one of the best known and highest volume Pinot Noirs produced in the world’s southernmost wine regions, Central Otago. It is made from grapes grown around the wider Central Otago region, pushing softness and approachability in a light to medium bodied, fruit forward style each year. It drinks well as a youthful wine and is not intended to be cellared for the long term.

This is a pronounced skin contact expression of the Amphora Albarino with dried apricots, quince & orange rind notes. Appealing phenolic texture with treacle & marmalade, finishing with freshness.

As I was pressing the Albarino, (which had been macerating on skins for two weeks) the 'skins' portion began to turn a bright orange colour. I separated this amber portion into puncheon & barrel.

Later down the ageing track the pressings component from the Amphora Albarino announced itself as its own wine. So I paid attention and gave it its own voice.

The whole bunches were hand harvested, de-stemmed and macerated on the skins for two weeks time. A very light daily hand plunge and the addition of my active vineyard starter yeast which fermented underneath the vines. Biodynamic preparations 500, CPP were applied to the soil through out the year, as well as silica quartz (501) to the canopy.

From Amoise...

This Pinot Noir (*label information below) was my first pick from the Two Terraces vineyard in the Mangatahi Terraces, Hawke’s Bay.  Ian and Linda Quinn are conscientious and detail oriented growers with the quality of their grapes being exceptional.

After a carbonic maceration, where there is no crushing of the grapes and fermentation occurs within the berries, the wine was pressed to tank and was a beautiful garnet colour. The following day I opened the valve of the tank and much to my surprise a pink hibiscus coloured wine came flowing out! Totally unexpected, and at first I was panicked, but as I tasted the wine I enjoyed the complexity of flavours: red currants, strawberries and pomegranate with a textural finish.

This wine is perfect for summer, I definitely recommend to drink cold or lightly chilled. Also a great food wine! Spicy foods, charcuterie, fish, grilled veggies and cheese. At 11.5% it is your ultimate picnic wine.

No additions at any stage, including sulphur. The wine is unfiltered and unfined. The grapes are certified organic and my rows have been farmed biodynamically since 2020.

After this wine was labelled, we became aware that the grapes used in making this wine, that we believed to be Gamay, were actually Pinot noir. This was identified following DNA testing of the grapevines. While we labelled this wine in good faith, this news means that the label is incorrect, and this wine is actually a Pinot noir. This wine is sold on the basis that the labelled grape variety is incorrect (the label is correct in all other aspects). Due to this unique situation, we are selling our stock that has already been labelled, while making sure that customers are made aware of this issue. If you have any questions about this issue, please contact amy@amoisewines.co.nz.

Home Fields operates from their original vineyard, planted in 1993, plus four additional lease vineyards.  The yield potential is approximately 50 tonnes, the majority of which being Pinot Noir, with several tonnes each of Chardonnay, Syrah and Pinot Gris.

For this wine the Pinot Noir grapes were lightly pressed, separated from skins and fermented to “dry” over ten days. 

Tasting
In the bottle, flavours offer a mix of strawberry with tangerine / grapefruit citrus notes. Tannins and acid lend body to the wine. 

100% Amphora fermented - an exploration and celebration of our Moutere Clays.
A wine of tension and texture that celebrates both power & grace.
However, this wine is in no way, tense. It is serene, meditative, contemplative and confident.
The palate is lifted by a savoury lick of salt-block minerality and a whisper of summer citrus.
Unshackled from tradition, the result is a contemporary, delicious wine for the chardonnay obsessed or averse.
A complex and captivating nod to the old world.

Site: 

Rosie’s Block - Upper Moutere, Nelson
Aspect: 90m Elveation, North West Facing
Soil Type: Moutere Clay Gravels
Soil Composition: Deep sand loam, with clay content (19%). Little stone content.
Vineyard Established: 1999
Farming: Dry Farmed, Organic (Biogro: #5438)
Variety: 100% Chardonnay
Clonal Selection: 548, Mendoza
Hand Harvested: 100%
Seasonal Detail: The 2023-2024 growing season was splendid, marked by a welcome return to an El Nino weather patter, and more stable weather conditions without dramatic temperature or rainfall extremes.
Summer months were dry and warm, but followed by an "autumnal" finish to the season. A superb season producing wines with fruit intensity and poise.

Winemaking:

Harvest: 15th - 21st March 2024

Processing: 100% whole bunch press. 48 hour settling.

Fermentation: 100% Wild Yeast, High solid fermentation

Fermentation Vessel: 100% Clay Amphora

Maturation: 10 months on gross lees with minimal battonage, followed by 2 months on fine lees, in a stainless steel tank.

Malolactic: 100% natural spring malo

Fining: None Filtration: Coarse Vegan: Yes

Bottling Analysis: 13.5% Alc, 3.25 pH, 6.4 g/L TA, Dry

Full Bottle Weight: 1,165 g

Nautilus Chardonnay is one of Marlborough’s most age worthy white wines and a delicious drink right now, especially the 2019 which comes from a great vintage in this country’s largest wine region. The Nautilus winery was founded in 1985 by the Hill-Smith family in South Australia and continues in the same ownership. Long term winemaker Clive Jones has been key in the transformation in quality and perception in Marlborough Chardonnay over the past two decades, thanks to this dry, full bodied, smooth and creamy wine, which ages beautifully (for those with willpower) for up to a decade.

Bendigo Hills, Central Otago, New Zealand.

The clone 10-5 Pinot Noir from Trig Hill vineyard was hand harvested and whole bunched pressed. The free run juice was then settled for 24 hours before being racked into a mix of seasoned oak barrels and stainless-steel barrels for fermentation. After a short warm fermentation, the wine was left on full lees and underwent indigenous MLF in spring. The wine was then tirage bottled and matured for 3.5 years prior to disgorging.

Shows aromas of wild berry, smoke. biscuit, five spices, and cinnamon on the nose with a complex palate of red berry and toast flavours.  Excellent fruit weight and a long finish. 

An outstanding New Zealand Albarino with complex flavours of salty green olives, freshly picked Granny Smith apples and bright acidity, which adds a zesty note to the flavours of subtly savoury wine. It's rich and full bodied with mouthwatering crisp salivating acidity giving great balance, length and structure.

Fresh, fruit driven Sauvignon Blanc is dry with lively acidity, a light body and intense flavours including tropical passionfruit notes typical of many Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs and also incorporating herbaceous flavours. It's the winner of a huge number of awards including the following:

2020 Concours Mondial Du Sauvignon: Gold

2020 Sakura Japan Women’s Wine Awards: Double Gold

2020 Toast to The Coast: Double Gold

Michael Franz, US: 92 Points

Cameron Douglas, NZ - 90/100 Points

Joe Czerwinski for Robert Parker, US - 90/100 Points

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.

Matahiwi's top and most full bodied Pinot Noir from its home block vineyard on a raised gravel ridge east of Masterton. This wine is dark and has great depth and structure thanks to being made from 50% of the impressive Abel clone; the greatest Pinot Noir variant in New Zealand and all given whole cluster fermentation in this wine to add structure, accentuate dark fruit flavours and a complex note of spice. Unfined. Vegan.

Meticulously crafted in exceptionally limited quantities, this is the second release of Whitehaven's 'Samantha' Cuvée, a wine which celebrates Greg and Sue’s daughter Samantha, as she continues the legacy that her parents created together.

This elegant Méthode Traditionnelle is sustainably produced, from 100% Marlborough Chardonnay and Pinot Noir fruit (Chardonnay dominant) and is produced in accordance with Méthode Traditionnelle practices. Enjoy crisp, dry, delicate flavours balanced with lees age derived complexity, finishing fine, clean and long.

Produced in very limited quantities, this is the perfect bubbles to share with friends or to celebrate a special occasion. 

This wine was hand harvested and whole bunch pressed followed by an extended time ageing on the lees. The wine is a rich straw gold colour, with floral aromas and apricot and orange notes on the nose. Extended lees ageing adds complex creamy, toasty qualities and nuttiness on the palate. This is supported by an underlying stony minerality and balanced acidity. This is a highly rated wine which will benefit from ageing.

Late Whitehaven co-founder Greg white was immensely proud of his three daughters, a legacy that Sue White has continued at the helm of Whitehaven Wines. And this new dry pink sparkling wine is made in honour of the daughters, as its name suggests. As is fitting of them, it is a beautiful expression of a sparkling wine made using the same winemaking methods as champagne - the second ferment is in the bottle; the blend is Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and the wine is incredibly elegant, crisp and bone dry in taste. Flavours of fresh summer berries lead into a gentle creaminess in a sparkling wine with a long, precise, cleansing finish.

Drink it with lightly grilled tuna or smoked salmon.