Irongate Vineyard - Hawke's Bay
The Irongate range draws its names from the Irongate aquifer that runs 25 metres below the stony soils near the foothills bordering the western plains of Hawke`s Bay. Wines made from grapes grown in this region are sought-after for their flinty and lean characteristics. It takes time to make these unconventional, yet high quality wines, and this is reflected in their extended cellaring potential.
Since its launch in 1985, Irongate has become one of New Zealand's most highly acclaimed wines.
Select a wine from the list to the left to discover more.
HOW BABICH IRONGATE BECAME A NEW ZEALAND ICON
Nowadays most top New Zealand chardonnays are barrel-fermented, and a number of wineries produce Gimblett Road wines. It was, however, a different story during the 1980s and Babich Irongate wines were at the forefront of a revolution that helped put New Zealand on the world's wine map.
During a visit in the early 80's to Europe's wine regions, Joe Babich was hugely impressed with many of the wines. In 1983 he identified the company's recently developed Irongate vineyard in Hawke's Bay as having the best potential to produce wines of the style and structure that had impressed him so much in the regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux.
In 1985 Joe made what was to become Irongate Chardonnay utilising a combination of traditional and modern wine making techniques. Keeping his plan secret from everyone in the family and the winery, Joe barrel fermented the juice in new and used 500 litre puncheons. It was aged on lees without malolactic fermentation. The resulting wine was entered in the 1985 National Wine Competition under the label Babich Chardonnay - Selected Reserve and achieved spectacular results - a gold medal and trophy for the Top White Wine of the year. The 1986 vintage was awarded gold in London's International Wine and Spirit Competition and the 1987 repeated the original vintage's gold medal and trophy success at the 1987 National Wine Competition.
It proved more difficult to achieve a high quality Bordeaux style red, taking three vintages before Joe was happy with the result. The 1989 and 1990 Irongate Cabernet Sauvignon Merlots both scored gold medals at the National Wine Competition.
Not content to rest on our laurels, Babich Wines constantly refines production techniques to improve the quality standards. Techniques used today, which have evolved since 1985, include hand harvesting, whole bunch pressing, temperature controlled barrel fermentation and ongoing cropping trials to optimise flavour and structure. These technique refinements and our devotion to maintaining the Irongate wine style has lead to their continued acclaim in New Zealand and overseas.
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