Maori Point Vineyard News;

News

After a cool spring and early autumn frosts, the 2009 vintage is small but special

aut To encourage ripening, teams of workers fruit-thinned the vineyard twice, leaving just one bunch on mature canes and dropping the rest. After frosts in March, we worried about lack of uniformity in the Pinot Noir, and reluctantly decided to harvest only Pinot Gris. The vintage is small, but it's a wonderful wine with intense flavour and smooth mouth-feel.

Bottling

2009 Pinot Gris was bottled on August 13th, and will be released in December 2009.

The 2008 vintage was of exceptional quality

December flowering was well synchronized so that fruitset was even across the vineyard. This allowed us to manage the vines to give very uniform ripening. The Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir Rosé, and our flagship wine, Maori Point Pinot Noir, show wonderfully intense and complex fruit flavours and soft supple tannins. This is a great vintage!

Bottling

2008 Pinot Noir Rosé and 2008 Pinot Gris were bottled on September 12th. The 2008 Pinot Noir was left in oak barrels until February 2009 and bottled in March. It will be released in December 2009, to allow bottle maturation, although it is already a pleasure to taste with spicy fruits, warm tannins and smooth mouth-feel.

Rosé

Our 2006 Rosé was made by running off 5% of the juice from the Pinot Noir ferments, and was notable for its intense cherry aroma and powerful fruits. The 2008 vintage comprises all the fruit from our vineyard block 3, planted with the 10/5 clone. These were harvested fully ripe, with moderately high acid levels which will give structure and good cellaring potential to the wine.

Winemaker's notes: "On the nose there are aromas of rose petals, peaches and cream, with nectarines and stone fruit on the palate. The wine has good fruit weight and intensity and is full and rich, with sweet fruits. The Rosé is a dry style with residual sugar of 2.1g/L, pH 3.49 and titratable acidity of 7.0g/L"

Pinot Gris

Michael Cooper described our 2007 Pinot Gris as "a full-bodied wine with fresh, citrusy, appley, flavours, a touch of barrel-ferment complexity and a dryish, appetisingly crisp finish".

Winemaker's notes: "Citrus, spice with hints of Nashi pears on the nose. Full and lifted nose with a palate of stone fruits and citrus. The wine has attractive, fresh acidity and a mineral, austere back-bone. It is a good food wine and has a residual sugar level of 2.3g/L and a pH of 3.45, titratable acidity of 6.2g/L. Approximately 27% spent 3.5 months in older oak."

The 2008 Pinot Gris has even more intense aroma and fruit flavours.

New labels!

Terroir

Vine roots have extended deep into our glacial gravels

Immediately after fruitset, irrigation water was turned off to encourage development of small intensely flavoured grapes. The surface soil became completely dry and there was no weed growth under the vines, but the vines themselves showed no signs of stress. Their roots have penetrated deep into our free-draining gravels to search for moisture many metres underground. Berries remained small with the concentrated flavours and sugars necessary for premium wines.

Expressing the Maori Point terroir

The distinct delicate 'minerally' taste in the after-palate of Maori Point 2007 Pinot Gris reflects the deep-rooted vines' search for water, and their intensity of flavour is enhanced by thick grape skins as vines protect themselves from intense sunlight and strong desiccating winds. Wines from Maori Point and from our neighbours in the Tarras sub-region are distinctly different from those from other areas in Central Otago.

Maori Point 2008 Pinot Noir is fermented with indigenous yeasts

Natural fermentation with no added foreign yeast allows full expression of the Maori Point terroir.

Organic viticulture

Maori Point has been sustainably managed with no insecticides and minimal use of synthetic fertilizers. From 2008 onwards, we are focused on becoming fully organic. Vine nutrients are supplied from organic compost and by mulching composted grape marc, flowering plants and native grasses harvested from the vineyard meadows. Our main problem is to build up enough humus in the soil to retain nutrients in our fast-draining glacial gravels and we are experimenting with different techniques to achieve this.

2009 Vintage

Spring buds, October 2008

Mid-winter pruning, 2009

2008 Vintage

Budburst spring 2007

Flowering, 2007

December was exceptionally warm and free of wind so that flowering was well-synchronized, resulting in an even fruit set.

Spring canopy management

Summer: February 2008

Bird nets went up early in March

Nets protect the grapes from marauding fruit eaters. Bird pressure has not been bad this year, just a few wax-eyes finding their way into the nets. Black nets are less obtrusive, but grapes under white nets are claimed to ripen faster.