2023 Whitehaven Marlborough Noble Riesling 375ml
$35.00
TASTING NOTE
Colour / Appearance: Mid lemon, with bright clarity.
Aroma / Bouquet: Lifted notes of Manuka honey and peach flesh, with hints of lavender and poached stone fruits.
Palate: Poached apricot syrup and honey notes, with a gentle citrus curl. The palate is lush with ripe fruit, but with enough firmness to ensure a clean finish.
Cellaring: Delicious drunk now but will age gracefully over many years if cellared correctly.
Food Match: Try this wine with rich, soft cheeses and sweet desserts.
Serve: Lightly chilled.
Volume: 375ml
WINE ANALYSIS
Alcohol: 11%
Residual Sugar: 164 g/L
Titratable Acidity: 7.4 g/L
pH: 3.69
VITICULTURE & VINIFICATION
Harvest Date: 17th May, 2023
Grape Growing: The fruit for this wine was sourced predominately from Awa-Iti vineyard, located in Brancott Valley of Marlborough. The vines are pruned to two canes on a vertical shoot positioned trellis. Shoot thinning, leaf plucking, and trimming are used to achieve balanced vines, a healthy canopy and clean fruit, before the on-set of late harvest botrytis (bunch infection approx. 50%) which is ideal for this style of wine.
Climate: Similar to the previous season, the 2023 growing season started with soil moisture at capacity following a wet winter. Flowering conditions in November and December were not even across Marlborough with some sub-regions achieving a good set and crop load and others below average set. Vigilance around disease pressure was paramount, with regular rain events through the season and unusual humidity and warm nights through much of December and January. Day time temperatures were not warm, delaying the vine’s physiological advancement. Marlborough breathed a sigh of relief as cyclone Gabrielle minimally impacted the region in February, while wreaking havoc through much of the North Island. The season turned a corner for Marlborough in early March with a return to cool nights and sunnier conditions allowing us to delay harvest foras long as possible, resulting in fruit that reached good sugar levels with attractive flavours, while disease levels remained low and manageable. Fruit condition remained very good through until the end of harvest.
Winemaking: The fruit for this wine was hand-harvested on a cool May morning. At the winery, the fruit was destemmed and crushed, then allowed to soak in our press overnight for maximum flavour extraction. The following day the juice was pressed off and was then allowed to settle for 48 hours. After this settling period, the clear juice was racked off and fermentation was then started with a selected yeast strain. The ferment was stopped when we felt the balance between sweetness and acid was achieved. This wine was bottled on the 12th September, 2023.
ACCOLADES
- NEW RELEASE
