Clear Water Cove Pinot Gris 2019

Along the length of our North and South Islands, the cool clear waters of the Pacific Ocean carve deep natural coves into the landscape. Intriguing for its unrivalled tranquillity, this spectacular eastern coastline of New Zealand is also renowned for its exceptional wines. In these beautiful, but harsh, conditions our vines struggle for survival, producing low yields of high quality fruit with concentrated flavours.

Vintage Report
The growing season in Marlborough started out warm and dry, resulting in very even flowering and ultimately balanced vines with the right amount of crop to get them through to harvest. The warm weather continued through Spring and Summer, with periodic rains which kept the vines hydrated through the warm growing season. The warmer conditions meant that harvest started around two weeks earlier than the previous year and the fruit harvested was full of flavour, with naturally balanced acidity and lovely weight. The Pinot Gris from this year is showing ripe characters of quince and beeswax. The wine has good depth of flavour with a moreish, silky finish.

Winemaking
Select parcels of Pinot Gris were individually harvested, de-stemmed and gently pressed. The juice was cold settled for 48 hours then racked prior to a long cool fermentation in stainless steel tanks to capture and enhance the fruit flavours of pear, fig and stone fruit. Each parcel was fermented separately using a range of selected yeasts. Following fermentation the wine was blended, stabilised, then filtered prior to bottling.

Winemaker Tasting Notes
This Pinot Gris is brimming with pear drop and honey, leading to flavours of stone fruit and beeswax. The palate is rich and shows wonderful balance between fruit sweetness and acidity, with a moreish silky finish.

Wine Analysis
Harvest Date: 22nd March – 1st April 2018
Vineyard: Awatere Valley, Marlborough
Alcohol: 13% Residual Sugar: 3.9g/l
Total Acidity: 5.8 pH: 3.36

Enjoy with Asian food, chicken and light pasta dishes.