Pinot Gris Marlborough 2021 – Greywacke

To produce the Pinot Gris Marlborough Greywacke, the three clones were hand-picked separately at high ripeness levels and whole-bunch pressed using very low maceration press cycles. The resulting juice was cold-settled then racked to fermentation vessels. Most of the juice underwent spontaneous indigenous yeast fermentation in old French oak barriques and the balance was fermented in stainless-steel tanks using cultured yeast. Towards the end of fermentation all the wine was transferred to stainless-steel tanks where the fermentations were stopped, retaining 11 g/l residual sugar. The wine then spent five months on lees in old barrels prior to blending and bottling.

Most of the grapes for this wine are from the Selection Ovaille and Mission clones grown at Wrekin Terrace Vineyard in the Brancott Valley, a valley floor site on gravelly clay-loam soils typical of the Southern Valleys. A smaller parcel of the Entav 52 clone (known for its small bunch and berry size) was grown at Riverbrook Vineyard in Rapaura, in young alluvial soils containing high proportions of greywacke river stones. The vineyards are trained on a two-cane VSP trellis and crop thinning is carried out to target a modest yield of 7.5 tonnes per hectare.