MAHI 2022 MARLBOROUGH ROSE

Winemaking details

The wine comes from Pinot Noir grapes selected from two vineyards in the Wairau Valley located in the cooler western end. Picked purposely for Rosé from low-cropping vines the juice was pressed off immediately to minimise time on skins and left to settle. Once settled the juice was fermented through to dryness at cool temperatures to retain the more delicate fruit characters. The focus with this wine is to provide a drink that has texture and depth, rather than focusing solely on primary fruit notes. We want a wine that satisfies across the palate and employ a number of techniques to achieve this. Immediate pressing and the absence of sugar gives the palate freshness and length.

Vintage

This year, our 22nd, was again distinctive and again it was early and some serious rainfall at veraison meant that the berries were bigger this year, so the crops were slightly higher. Starting on March the 10th we harvested quickly and finished the earliest ever. It was not a hot vintage, so the flavours were retained, but we felt the grapes were fragile so picked quickly as things ripened. We saw early on that it was a bigger year and, with cooler easterlies winds predominating, we decided to drop some bunches early, up to 18 bunches a vine in one parcel!? This really helped as the vines managed to get the remaining bunches ripe and we were happy with the health of the fruit. April saved us also as it only had 19% of normal rainfall and we nearly had the last month of no rain, which was so good. Slightly lower sugars this year means the wine is perhaps more elegant and refined but it still shows the texture we are looking for.