2016 Whitehaven Marlborough Riesling
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TASTING NOTE
Colour / Appearance: Pale lemon-gold, with a green hue
Aroma / Bouquet: Lifted lemon zest, mandarin, green apple with mineral and lavender notes.
Palate: A lightly textured wine with a fresh, crisp acid zestiness, supporting the lemon and green apple fruit flavours and aiding the mineral seams.
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: Superbly paired with Asian cuisine and crisp green salads. This wine is excellent to whet the appetite before a meal.
Serve: Lightly chilled
ACCOLADES:
- SILVER MEDAL - New World Wine Awards
WINE ANALYSIS
Alcohol: 11.5
Residual Sugar: 11.3
Titratable Acidity: 7.4
pH: 2.98
VITICULTURE
Harvest Date: 31st March – 14th April, 2016
Climate: The weather was very dry early in the season, with average temperatures, clear skies and a high risk of frost. Warm conditions over flowering in mid-December resulted in good yields. Decent rain in early and mid-January, allowed for healthy canopies and vigorous growth. February was hot and dry, followed by warm, dry March; perfect weather for intense flavour development.
Vine Management: 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: Half the fruit was hand-picked and whole bunch pressed, while the remainder was machine picked in the cool morning conditions. 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.
Winemaker: Sam Smail and Rowan Langdon.
