Organically farmed Pinot Noir and Syrah from Martinborough and Bridge Pa.

A savoury, crunchy, whole bunch offering sitting at a Pinot Noir weight with flavours that are firmly Syrah

Vineyard:
The Pinot Noir comes from the excellent Grava vineyard which is certified
organic, farmed by Alistair and Karla. The vines are grown on the terraces of
the Ruamahanga river providing alluvial deposits making silt loam soils.

The Syrah comes from the prestigious Bridge Pa Triangle and is also farmed
organically. These soils are free-draining red metal soil, overlaid by alluvium-derived loess, volcanic ash, and greywacke, a composite left behind by the Ngaruroro River that once flowed through the valley thousands of years earlier.

Winemaking:
The Pinot was hand picked and destemmed to a fermenter that was 2 days later topped with hand picked whole bunch syrah. Gentle cap management during fermentation and lightly pressed off of skins 10 days later. The wine was left
to age in seasoned french barrels and undergo malolactic fermentation for 7
months. Racked to tank, the LDR is bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Tasting Notes:
A light savoury style wine with aromas of tamarillo, redcurrants and whole
bunch stemminess. Undertones of cherries, spice and crunchy woody herbs add to
feel that the wine is equal parts savoury and vibrantly fresh.

Technical Notes:
pH 3.79, Titratable acidity 5.4g/L, Residual sugar- dry

Ash Ridge Wines is located in Hawke's Bay and is a family owned winery established in 2005 by Chris and Sonya Wilcock.

This gem from the stunning 2020 vintage has a savoury, gamey bouquet packed with meaty nuances, black pepper, herb, dark plum and blackberry. The palate is rich with dark fruit and savoury details thanks to a supple tannin framework and balanced acidity.

Matahiwi winemaker Miles Dineen is a dab hand at Syrah. He uses grapes from the sunny Hawke's Bay to produce this outstanding expression of spicy, ripe plum flavours from the gorgeous Syrah grape. 

This wine is top value for money from one of the great Syrah winemakers in this country; it is one of his favourite grapes and we're sure this wine will be too - try it. 

Te Mata Tasting Note

Coleraine '22 harnesses the energy and complexity of Te Mata cabernet sauvignon, on show at its highest level since the first Coleraine in 1982.

The beautiful floral aromas of lavender, violet, plum and blackcurrant, are all in orbit around the wine?s dark savoury core of tightly wound graphite, nori, coffee grounds, vanilla and tobacco.  The palate is intensely concentrated, with a superbright tension building freshness and precision as layer upon layer of fine polished tannins give pinpoint detail alongside signature, exacting, levels of finesse.

Coleraine '22 is a modern reprise of what makes Coleraine iconic, a wine balancing past and future, heritage and innovation. This is a statement wine, one that lingers both on the palate and in the mind.

VINEYARDS Parcels of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were hand-picked from selected sites on the  gravel soils of the old Ngaruroro River, and old vine Merlot from the Bridge Pa region.  Bridge Pa Triangle soils feature fine silt loam over red metal gravels, while the gravel sites protected by Roys Hill, feature gravel over fine silt. These sites are free draining and low in fertility, resulting in struggling vines producing fruit of great concentration. Low yielding vines, open canopy management, managed irrigation and Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand farmed were common to all sites. Bridge Pa Merlot delivers ripe, dark plums which compliments the spicy brighter fruits from the gravels. Cabernet thrives on gravel sites and contributes structure, acidity and fragrant berry fruit notes. 

WINEMAKING Batches of hand harvested fruit was chilled overnight before processing the following day. Chilled bunches were hand sorted and de-stemmed, and whole berries were transferred to open fermenters with some foot stomping. Whole bunches were also incorporated in some of the Merlot fermenters. The berries were cold soaked before fermentation, with pumping over twice per day then pressed to barriques at the  end of fermentation. The Merlot and Cabernet matured for 21 months in new and  seasoned French oak barriques. Blended in December 2019 and bottled in January  2020, the final blend is approximately 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. 

SENSORY An elegant Merlot Cabernet blend which exhibits lifted aromatics of fragrant  berry fruits, sweet French oak, and underlying lavender and thyme. Complex and  textural, seamless tannins harmoniously support red and black fruits, earthiness,  and spice. Tautly poised to develop beautifully with bottle age.

This new addition to the Esk Valley stable of wines is a lighter, more fragrant expression of Syrah, which represents a bit of a style departure from its siblings made from grapes grown on the Gimblett Gravels.
In this case, the wine is made from grapes grown on a 1.1 hectare vineyard at the top of The Terraces Vineyard at Bay View, just north of Napier city. The warmth of the limestone soils and the cooling sea breezes combine to ripen Syrah grapes slowly with hot days and cool nights, providing floral aromas supported by depth of dark fruit, black olive and fleshy red fruit notes. All grapes were hand picked and fermented as a mix of whole cluster bunches and destemmed fruit in a single concrete fermenter with wild yeasts. 

It’s made in small volumes and will age for up to and beyond 10 years.

Hot, dry, long and reliable. And that's just the vintage conditions in Hawke's Bay in 2020. This wine is a beautiful expression of a warm vintage with a long summer. Flavours here include blackberry, spice and liquorice which combine to produce a fruit dominant but complex wine. A small inclusion of the white variety Viognier gives the wine beautiful perfume and allows the wine more accessibility while young.

Coleraine derives its name from the Coleraine vineyard, home of John and Wendy Buck of Te Mata Estate. John’s late grandfather was born in Coleraine in Northern Ireland and the name has been maintained through the family home to the wine. Originally a single vineyard wine, from 1989 Coleraine has been an assemblage of the finest wines produced from distinct plots within Te Mata Estate’s oldest vineyards on the Havelock Hills.

Te Mata have dubbed the 2023 Coleraine 'The Return of The King'.
In the realm of fine wine, Coleraine is Te Mata’s crowning jewel – a cabernet sauvignon that embodies the essence of the variety’s title: The King of Grapes. 

The latest vintage, the illustrious 2023, reigns supreme with a level of expression and finesse as robust as its lineage.  A stately example of coastal cabernet, the 

Coleraine ’23 harmonizes intricate varietal notes with an elegant structure  and a power that feels both balanced and commanding. At its core lies the indomitable characteristics of cabernet –  the grape upon which Coleraine’s reign has always been built.

Te Mata’s cabernet collection, sourced from seven noble selections across 24 vineyard parcels, is majestic in the  Coleraine ’23 blend, commanding a regal 80% of the composition. Joined by 15% merlot and a touch of  5% cabernet franc, this royal assembly reflects the multitude of soil types and vineyard sites that define our  sub-regions. Coleraine is New Zealand’s greatest red wine – a true returning king in every sense.

From Amoise...

This Pinot Noir (*label information below) was my first pick from the Two Terraces vineyard in the Mangatahi Terraces, Hawke’s Bay.  Ian and Linda Quinn are conscientious and detail oriented growers with the quality of their grapes being exceptional.

After a carbonic maceration, where there is no crushing of the grapes and fermentation occurs within the berries, the wine was pressed to tank and was a beautiful garnet colour. The following day I opened the valve of the tank and much to my surprise a pink hibiscus coloured wine came flowing out! Totally unexpected, and at first I was panicked, but as I tasted the wine I enjoyed the complexity of flavours: red currants, strawberries and pomegranate with a textural finish.

This wine is perfect for summer, I definitely recommend to drink cold or lightly chilled. Also a great food wine! Spicy foods, charcuterie, fish, grilled veggies and cheese. At 11.5% it is your ultimate picnic wine.

No additions at any stage, including sulphur. The wine is unfiltered and unfined. The grapes are certified organic and my rows have been farmed biodynamically since 2020.

After this wine was labelled, we became aware that the grapes used in making this wine, that we believed to be Gamay, were actually Pinot noir. This was identified following DNA testing of the grapevines. While we labelled this wine in good faith, this news means that the label is incorrect, and this wine is actually a Pinot noir. This wine is sold on the basis that the labelled grape variety is incorrect (the label is correct in all other aspects). Due to this unique situation, we are selling our stock that has already been labelled, while making sure that customers are made aware of this issue. If you have any questions about this issue, please contact amy@amoisewines.co.nz.

Winemakers Notes
With this being such a popular varietal these days, we were asked by our local distributor to produce one. As it turns out places like Japan and Canada are also hopping on this fresher, aromatic style. I fermented half in stainless steel tank with a selected organic yeast and the other half as wild ferments in 2 large puncheons. This provided both precision and funkiness making for a really unique expression of this grape.

Vineyard
Hawke's Bay is located on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The region enjoys dry summers with moderate, cool nights. This wine reflects a single vineyard Pinot Gris which was grown in the Eskdale Appellation of Hawke's Bay. The vineyard lies along the Esk River Valley about 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from the mouth that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The soils are a combination of silt and loam deposited from the river and heavier deposits at the foot of the Esk Valley Hills. The vineyard has begun its journey into organic farming with no weed sprays and the use of an under- vine mower.

Winemaking
This Pinot Gris was harvested with an average harvest Brix of 20.5 and picked with a fresh acidity to give the finished wine some finesse and keep the alcohol in balance.

We chose to machine harvest the fruit to give the juice time to soak freely on skins for about 6 hours before we pressed. The free-run juice and light pressings were fermented in stainless steel using an organic inoculated yeast and fermented slow and cool to relative dryness. The pressings went into 10 year old French puncheons (500 liter oak) where they fermented wild each with their own hint of sweetness and character left behind.