30 Sep 2006 -
Harvest 2006 and New Releases
Vintage Beginnings – Viticulture What a summer! As usual these days, there was nothing usual about our weather during the past growing season; it was one of the driest growing seasons Central Otago has ever experienced. On top of that, the warmth began very early and the almost-perfect growing weather continued right through to harvest, making it very easy in the vineyard. That being said, it also provided a unique array of challenges. The very low yields of 2005 meant bunch numbers were low going into the season. The great weather through the season led to a perfect flowering and eventually to larger than normal bunches. This isn’t ideal as a smaller, more compact grape, has more flavour dimension than a larger one. Vintage Harvest was one of the earliest ever with our Sauvignon Blanc kicking off the season on the 15th of March. The great weather continued right throughout Harvest and we finally pulled in our Late Harvest Pinot Gris on the 20th of June. Grape condition was fabulous with no disease pressure; it certainly makes my life in the winery a great deal easier. The 2006 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are currently resting up in barrel. The Chardonnay has been some of the best that I have seen through the winery doors, so all good on that front. The Pinot Noir also looks extremely promising, with great definition and some typicity of site starting to appear. The white wines in general came in slightly flavour riper than they have in the past couple of seasons, with lower than usual acidities. Flavour concentration and varietal definition were great. The Sauvignon Blanc was again harvested in two parcels to provide for a broader flavour spectrum, very much still a classic Central Otago expression of Sauvignon. We have expanded our Riesling and Pinot Gris offerings to again include the Long Gully Riesling and Mansons Farm Pinot Gris. The three Rieslings - Dry, Target Gully and Long Gully - are all slightly riper fruit-flavoured with slightly lower acidities than is typical. The Pinot Gris is continuing to evolve with classic white peach and nectarine character becoming a hallmark. The fruit for our Mansons Farm Pinot Gris was harvested a month after the fruit for our Pinot Gris. This has evolved the wine into a richer, more tropically-fruited Pinot Gris with some residual sugar (~25g/L). October Release We are releasing all of the aromatic whites mentioned above on the 1st of October, as well as our 2005 Mt Difficulty Chardonnay and 2005 Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir. The ‘05 Chardonnay is looking extremely promising, with powerful stone fruit and citrus characters combining with a lovely biscuity mealiness from its barrel maturation and full malolactic fermentation. The ‘05 Pinot Noir is looking equally promising; with beautiful red and black forest fruits combining with liquorice and dried herb. Both of these wines have benefited enormously from the intensely low yields of 2005 and, as a result, are some of the more concentrated wines we have produced. The quality of the vintage has enabled us to release two Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs for the first time, from Long Gully and Pipeclay Terrace. They will be released and available from the Cellar Door in February. I hope that you enjoy imbibing our wines as much as I have crafting them. Cheers Matt Dicey, Winemaker
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