Wine Note A luscious, rich Sauvignon Blanc with a fresh natural acidity. Complexity comes from the wild ferment, French oak and malolactic components. A mouthwatering Sauvignon Blanc brilliant with food. Fruit Sauvignon Blanc Alcohol Content 12.0% Harvest Hawkes Bay had some lovely warm days during late February and March so we were able to develop some great flavours and sugars while still retaining the natural acids in the Sauvignon Blanc. Vinification The fruit was selected from our Sauvignon Blanc block that is planted on one of our more stony sites on our Gimblett Gravels vineyard. Through hand picking we were able to select the riper, cleaner bunches to go into our reserve product. The fruit was whole bunch pressed with the first portion being run directly to barrel, with no additions, for a wild fermentation. The remaining juice was cold settled overnight, racked to a fermentation tank and inoculated with a selected yeast. Fermentation temperature was controlled at around 12-15°C and lasted for approximately 2-3 weeks. Some of the batches were transferred to a selection of new and seasoned French barriques to finish ferment. The barrel portion remained on gross yeast lees with weekly stirring. About 20% of the blend was put through malolactic fermentation. After about 10 months of maturation in oak and stainless steel the wine was protein and cold stabilized, filtered and bottled. Composition 100% Matariki Gimblett Road Vineyard, Hawke’s Bay Sauvignon Blanc Barrel Percentage 32% new French oak barriques, 21% seasoned French oak barriques, 47% tank fermented and matured Bottling This wine was bottled on the 16th of February 2005. Sensory Brilliant straw colour with golden highlights. |
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