Winemaker's notes:

Single clone Mariafield Pinot Noir. 

Organically grown on clay soils, Orchis 2024 captures a warm, dry harvest, delivering generous body and ripe, expressive fruit. Wild-fermented in open tanks with 30% whole clusters and matured for nine months in a mixture of barriques and puncheon, this Pinot Noir speaks of sunwarmed currants, wild pomegranate, and worn leather.

On the palate, lush Doris plum unfolds alongside a thread of sage and fresh ground pepper. Supple yet precise, the wine’s bright natural acidity and light, crunchy tannins carry into a savoury, lingering finish.

A beautiful Blanc de Noir made entirely from lightly pressed Pinot Noir grapes and made by Clos Henri in Marlborough. The light pressing provides no colour to the wine but retains all the savoury, earthy, toasty flavours you'd hope for and expect from this great red grape variety. 

All grapes are hand picked grapes and the wine is aged on fine lees for 10 months, partially in stainless steel and partially in old oak. The wine was stored in the winery's cellar to allow a slow bottle fermentation and secondary aging on yeast lees for a minimum of 18 months. A few hundred bottles are disgorged at a time to release onto the market, leaving the remainder aging on its lees (sur lattes). 

Clos Henri began 22 years ago in Marlborough when the French Bourgeois family expanded their winemaking from the heart of Sancerre in the tiny village of Chavignol to Blenheim, in 2001. Now that their vines are 22 years of age , the family feels that they are only now starting to reflect and express the taste of the land. This family retains their land and winemaking in Chavignol where they have made wine for 11 generations.

The fruit contained a mix of four Pinot Noir clones – 777, 115, Abel & UCD5. Fruit was spilt into three fermenters – one containing 100% whole bunch, 70% whole bunch, and the other 100% de-stemmed. Fermented with natural yeast. Gentle winemaking techniques were used to avoid excessive extraction. 23 days on skin, pressed to 100% old French oak barrels. 12 months in barrel, and allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation naturally in spring, before being racked and allowed to naturally settle and integrate in tank. Unfined and unfiltered.

Hand Harvested: 6th and 12th April 2021
Bottled: 8th June 2022
pH: 3.69
TA: 5.9g/L
Alcohol: 13.5% v/v

A pinot noir that undergoes carbonic maceration and is designed to be enjoyed chilled.

One of the best Syrahs from Hawke's Bay, full of rich, dark blackberry flavours, red liquorice and a savoury finish; this wine is long and finely tuned without being heavy, dense or dry. And while it's impressive now, this is also a keeper from Smith & Sheth, a pair of wine loving business people whose aim is to make the best  expression of grape and place. Hawke's Bay and Syrah are a match made in heaven. 

Sirius White is a blend of Chardonnay with a touch of Viognier and Marsanne fermented with indigenous yeasts and bacteria and is certified organic and biodynamic.

Winemakers James and Annie Millton were the first in the country to produce a certified organic wine in 1984 and have since pioneered biodynamic grape growing and winemaking practices, along with retaining a strong loyalty to lesser known great grape varieties, such as Marsanne and Viognier, among many others. 

We love the wines from this iconic producer.

Maori Point Pinot Noir is a full bodied expression of the hero red grape of Central Otago and named after a bend on the Mata-Au (also known as the Clutha River) where Māori prospectors panned for gold in the 1860s.

The wine brand is owned by two families who grow the grapes and employ experienced winemakers in the region to produce their wines. The philosophy of the owners is to produce high quality wines made from hand picked grapes from vineyard sites with low yields, using wild yeast fermentations, minimal sulphur additions and using sustainable practices as much as possible. This is their quest and the wines are elegant renditions of Otago's edgy climate with its hot summer days and cool seasons on both sides of ripening. 

"The Swiss couple make wonderful handmade reds and whites from an array of grapes, from Viognier to Nebbiolo. In fact, the barrel of Nebbiolo they make is like something from the best of Barolo. Unfortunately, they are tiny production." James Suckling, October 2022 (Suckling is internationally regarded as one of the world's most influential wine critics.)

The wine that dreams are made of must have been a Nebbiolo. A gorgeous wine balanced and poised with heady aromas of floral and light red fruit. On the smooth, juicy palate, polished tannins support succulent cherries, prunes, wild herbs and truffle. It’s already delicious and accessible but will age like your best Barolo or Barbaresco.

Tasting Nebbiolo is an arresting experience because the floral and light red fruit aromas suggest a wine much lighter than it is. Tasting blind it is easy mistaken for a great Grand Cru Burgundy with its firm grip of the pronounced acidity and ethereal structure. This Nebbiolo is without rival, we felt transported to Piemonte, reminiscing of wild herbs, cherries, truffles and prunes. The silky, soft texture and delicious sweetness of the extracts, upheld by a great acidity enough to make the mouthfeel velvety and seductive. A truly regal wine - pure, elegant and perfectly balanced that will last forever if you have the heart to keep it aside.

Stone Paddock is a fleshy, dry, full bodied red, modelled on the best from Bordeaux. The blend is Merlot 73%, Cabernet Franc 14%, Cabernet Sauvignon 7.5% and Malbec 5% and is a prime example of great red wine made from the stony soils of Hawke’s Bay. Highly scented plum, blackberry and cassis aromas with hints of five spice, cedar and fine spicy oak. Dark fruit flavours of plum and blackberries are accentuated by lifted ripe aromas of spice and a beautifully balanced tannic structure. 

Smith & Sheth Cabernet Franc is made from the Howell Vineyard in Bridge Pa, Hawke’s Bay, and tastes of soft, smooth vanilla, impressive rich dark blueberries and blackberries. It’s one of those wines with great concentration and fantastic length, a full body that suggests fabulous potential to age, but who knows? How often do we get to taste aged Cabernet Franc, after all? Here’s a good reason to stash some under the bed for 10 years to find out. 

This wine is made from hand picked grapes grown in the Bridge Pa region of Hawke's Bay on silty clay soils that lie over free draining red gravel. The wine was aged in French oak for 12 months, 50% of which was new oak. It has great structure as a result and represents an outstanding expression of one of New Zealand's lesser known grape varieties, Cabernet Franc, which makes up just 93 hectares of the country's total vineyard area today - a drop of nearly 50% from 2000 when there were 161 hectares. A sad decline, despite the growing quality of wines made from this outstanding grape variety.

This chilly valley is like a corridor between the coast north of Oamaru and Omarama in North Otago. Many parts of the valley are full of limestone laden soils, making it highly suitable for high quality wine production.

Ata Rangi Pinot Gris is modelled on the classic style of wines from Alsace in France and is made from vines which are now over 23 years old. 

The grapes are fermented in older oak barrels, which provide texture and body to the finished wine, which tastes spicy and has flavours of beeswax, lemon curd and fresh pastry, all of which add complexity and softness to this smooth off dry white from one of Martinborough's first four wineries.

The name Ata Rangi is Maori for dawn sky and was chosen to portray the new beginning that the start of this winery represented for founder Clive Paton in the late 1970s.

A small volume, high quality new Chardonnay from Marlborough, which is gaining huge traction with critics, both nationally and globally. 

What the critics say

BOB CAMPBELL MW

“Novum deserves to be on every wine lovers radar” 

JANCIS ROBINSON MW, UK

“Very smart nose fully vindicates my enthusiasm for NZ Chardonnay.

If only all white burgundy smelt this clean and compelling. Crystalline fruit. Good, medium weight of pure fruit that’s already intense but promises much more in the future. Long and complex. No playing around with reduction. A beautiful wine.”

95 Points, Cameron Douglas MS, NZ

"An intriguing almost sensual bouquet of Chardonnay. Aromas of red apple and sweet peach tea, lees spices and white flowers, flint and chalk-like minerality, and a light dusting of fragrant baking spices. Very sophisticated and quite pure on the palate - dry, complex, even and lengthy. A precise palate weight with a youthful acid line, extremely fine wood tannins and fine lees texture. Flavours of white and yellow orchard fruits, wood spices and fine stone-like minerality. A delicious example, modern, youthful, complex and intriguing. Lots to like. Drink now and through 2026." 

Great Central Otago Pinot Noir from the most experienced viticulturist-winemaker team, brothers James and Matt Dicey. This pair have produced this wine with a blend of grapes grown on the Inlet Vineyard (60%) and Black Rabbit Vineyard (40%).

The wine is fleshy and full bodied with bright fresh fruit flavour to the forefront of each succulent sip; indigenous yeast fermentation took place with 2% whole clusters, 98% destemmed and 23 days on skins followed by ageing of 12 months in barrel, 21% new oak. 

The wine contains 14.3% ABV and was bottled unfined but filtered. 

The new Dicey Wine brand is the brainchild of the well experienced Dicey brothers, Matt and James, whose parents were among the pioneers of viticulture and winemaking in Bannockburn, Central Otago, when they co-founded Mt Difficulty Wines. 

Under the direction of Chief Winemaker, John Kavanagh, the Te Kairanga winemaking philosophy places a premium on the character of the site. The grapes are harvested block by block and vinified individually with punch-downs and gentle pressing to ensure full extraction without sacrificing elegance. Balanced oak treatment and minimal fining and filtration help preserve both varietal character and the inimitable personality of the terroir.