NOTE ON SHIPPING: This wine is still in barrel, so if you include it in your order, we will wait to send your shipment until after bottling in April 2025

GROWING SEASON

Despite beginning with a devastating late October frost that damaged a swath of vineyards in Central Otago (including Māori Point), the 2024 growing season was considered excellent. The La Nina weather pattern of relatively settled weather for Central Otago continued, and moderate heat accumulation (lower maximum temperatures), set up for a low-stress harvest, beginning on April 4 (same day as 2023). Because of the October frosts, our crop was significantly reduced, and the grape ripening showed greater variability than usual. 

VINEYARD & WINERY PRACTICES

We believe wine should express where and when it is grown and made. We follow organic principles and then proceed further, nurturing the soil and indigenous microflora by making our own compost and planting native vegetation. Vine pruning, leaf pulling, straightening shoots, and harvesting are all done by hand. At least fourteen different areas of the vineyard are harvested and fermented individually in our winery that is adjacent to the vines. Small fermentations by native yeasts, worked by hand and exposed to ambient temperatures, articulate different facets of vineyard and vintage. Malolactic fermentation occurs naturally during the eleven months the wine is in barrel (primarily French oak, 22% new). We rack once in summer, use minimal sulfites, and do not fine or filter.

TASTING NOTES

The devastating October frost reduced our 2024 crop and increased the variability in ripeness from cluster to cluster. That impact of the frost on the grapes does can be glimpsed in the young wine: the 2024 shows concentration, yet also a wider range of fruit and spice flavours related to ripeness. Bright raspberry coexisting with dark cherry, and hints of black pepper coexisting with caramel notes. The cooler than average fermentation temperatures created by the wild yeasts accentuates those contrasts, yes the wine remains graceful, with classic underlying silky tannins. In the end, a beautiful and memorable wine that clearly expresses a unique vintage. Should improve for ten or more years.