Description
Vineyard Notes
The grapes for this wine are from our certified-organic Woolshed vineyard on Loveblock Farm, in the Lower Dashwood sub-region of Marborough’s Awatere Valley. The soil type is predominately aged alluvial loams containing some silt loam over stone. Dependent on vigour, the vines are pruned to two or three canes and trained in a normal vertical shoot position. The stellar 2021 growing season delivered ideal flowering conditions, followed by a warm, dry summer, meaning that the grapes were picked in perfect condition. As vine vigour determines the crop load, the yield was an average of 9 tonnes per hectare. Harvest occurred in March. No sulphur was used in the vineyard as per organic winemaking practices. Use of regenerative growth, manure and horn on the vineyard is employed to promote balanced, fertile soil, biodiversity and healthy grape growth in order to produce wine without the use of chemical pesticides, fungicides or additives of any kind.
Vinification
Harvested in the cool Marlborough mornings (35 percent by hand and 65 percent by machine), the fruit for this wine was batch produced in small amounts with soil variation within the vineyard determining the batch size. The handpicked portion was fermented separately in alternate vessels – two concrete eggs, two amphorae and neutral old French oak barrels – on wild yeast. The concrete egg and amphorae portions were pressed and settled for a few hours, then racked to vessel where primary and secondary fermentation occurred spontaneously. The barrel portion went straight from press to barrel where it fermented on wild yeast and underwent malolactic fermentation. The machine harvested portion went straight to stainless tanks from press where 25 percent underwent full malolactic fermentation for softness and mouthfeel. Post fermentation, only the best parcels were selected for the final Loveblock blend.
Food match: Oysters, seafood, pasta and chicken.
Organic status: Certified organic – BioGro #5266.
Vegan status: Vegan friendly
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