2007 VINTAGE REPORT

This is a year that has exceeded expectations of quality but has come up a little short in quantity. The season began with an unusually cold spring, (some would say we missed spring altogether), throughout the country – which generally reduced fruit set and in some cases produced some devastating late frosts. The early summer months began unpromisingly cool and wet but thankfully turned hot and dry from early January onwards till harvest.

MARLBOROUGH

This year we harvested grapes from eleven different sites in four valleys (Wairau, Awatere, Waihopai and Brancott). We experienced some loss to frost in the Waihopai Valley – though this has been largely offset by new plantings at our Headwaters Vineyard at the top of the Wairau Valley, (this fruit looks very promising), with more growers coming on board. Across the region the fruit was in excellent condition and has yielded some top flight wines – in particular Pinot Noir, already displaying concentrated spicy fruit and savoury complexity, and Sauvignon Blanc – showing its usual intensity and lift along with some real personality and interest.

HAWKE'S BAY

We were hit by a late frost at our Korokipo Rd vineyard at Fernhill and lost a significant, though not as much as we feared, amount of the Sauvignon Blanc crop. Apart from this set back it was an excellent vintage – the weather was kind and unthreatening, allowing us to harvest the various parcels exactly when we wished.

As usual the Chardonnay from our Gimblett Vineyard was the first pick and is looking particularly flavourful. Other standouts include Gewurztraminer, all hand picked, Syrah and the severely crop thinned Bordeaux varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Merlot earmarked for the Irongate and Patriarch labels.

GISBORNE

From the “Chardonnay Capital of New Zealand”, (though we believe Hawke’s Bay has a good claim to that crown also), we source our Chardonnay for the East Coast blend. And, as with the rest of the country, the weather was superb, yielding opulent and fruit- forward wines.

As I write this we are bottling our first lot of 2007 wine, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. This will be followed by the Black Label Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay Sauvignon Blancs. This is an exciting time of the year for us – we hope you will find the wines equally as exciting.

Adam Hazeldine
Winemaker