2020 Whitehaven Marlborough Riesling
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TASTING NOTE
Colour / Appearance: Mid-straw with a green hue and bright clarity.
Aroma / Bouquet: Fresh aromas of lime, green apple and delicate florals.
Palate: A light-bodied wine with youthful citrus flavours and bright acidity. Made in an off dry style, residual sugar balances the acidity and aids the long, pure, and slightly mineral finish.
Cellaring: We believe after cellaring for a year or more this Riesling will gain some bottle-age complexity to augment the varietal characters the wine exhibits now. However, the wine is already in good balance, and can be enjoyed immediately.
Food Match: Very versatile with food. Superbly paired with delicate fish and Asian cuisine. This wine is excellent to whet the appetite before a meal.
Serve: Lightly chilled.
WINE ANALYSIS
Alcohol: 11.5%
Residual Sugar: 11.7 g/L
Titratable Acidity: 7.1 g/L
pH: 2.89
VITICULTURE
Harvest Date: 4th April 2020
Climate:
2020 was a classical growing season with plenty of sunshine, not too much heat through Summer and a return to cool nights preceding harvest, ensuring acidities and flavours remained bright and vibrant. This was all built on good rainfall pre-Christmas, which set the vines up with healthy working canopies that held through to the end of harvest. The weather over harvest was settled and dry, allowing fruit to be harvested in lovely condition.
Grape growing:
Estate grown at Pauls Road. The vines were pruned to 2 canes, with vertical shoot positioning. Balanced pruning, shoot thinning, wire lifting, and trimming ensured favourable canopy conditions.
VINIFICATION
Winemaking:
The fruit was hand-picked and whole bunch pressed. A press cut was made to minimise harsh phenolic compounds in the wine. After settling and clarification, the juice was fermented at very low temperature with a select yeast strain to retain the fruit’s intense varietal flavours. The ferment was stopped with some residual sugar to balance the high acidity.
- "It's brilliantly styled and elegantly expressed on the nose showing white flesh nectarine, fresh fig, lemon sorbet and white floral aromas, leading to a finely focused palate delivering awesome fruit purity and persistency. It's linear and lingering with fabulous fruit purity backed by vibrant acidity, finishing long and gorgeously appealing. Style: Off-dry. At its best: now to 2030." Sam Kim, NZ - 95/100 Points
- "Medium-dry riesling with lime, white flowers and oyster-shell flavours supported by a deliciously fruity acidity that builds exquisite tension. The wine has impressive purity, an ethereal texture and a lingering finish." Bob Campbell, NZ - 94/100 Points, Top Value, Top Rank
- "The attractively scented 2020 vintage (4*) is a single-vineyard, Wairau Valley wine. Medium-bodied, it has citrusy, appley flavours, a sliver of sweetness (9.6 grams/litre of residual sugar), balanced acidity, and very good delicacy, poise and length. Still very youthful, it's well worth cellaring to 2023+." Michael Cooper, NZ - 4 Stars
