2023 Whitehaven Marlborough Riesling
$25.00
TASTING NOTE
Colour / Appearance: light yellow green with bright clarity.
Aroma / Bouquet: lemon and lime, white florals, apple and delicate spice.
Palate: Intense lemon and apple flavours with a crushed rock, mineral focus. The wine is mouth filling yet feels dry with beautifully balanced acidity and a long, crisp spicy finish.
Cellaring: We recommend drinking our Riesling when it is young and fresh, but the wine is capable of developing nicely beyond five years if carefully cellared.
Food Match: Ideally suited to Asian cuisine, crisp green salads, and ‘fusion’ dishes. This wine is excellent to whet the appetite before a meal, or to cleanse the palate afterwards.
Serve: Lightly chilled.
WINE ANALYSIS
Alcohol: 12.0%
Residual Sugar: 4.9 g/L
Titratable Acidity: 7.51 g/L
pH: 2.92
VITICULTURE
Harvest Date: 4th and 5th April 2024.
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 for as 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.
Grape growing: The fruit used in this Riesling is 31% from Pauls Road (Rapaura) and 69% from Awa-iti (Southern Valleys). The vines were trained to 2 or 3 cane vertical shoot position design. Throughout the growing season the vines were thoughtfully managed, with open canopies and prudent crop thinning helping to create fully ripe, clean fruit come harvest time.
VINIFICATION
Winemaking: Some fruit was machine harvested in the cool evening and pressed with minimal skin contact. The portion of hand-picked fruit was whole bunch pressed. For both components, 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.
- Aotearoa Regional Wine Competition 2024, Silver
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Top notch dry Riesling from Whitehaven Wines of Marlborough. This vibrant young Riesling has zesty citrus flavours of lime, lemon and a hint of ripe grapefruit, all balanced by notes of peach and a long finish with bright acidity adding delicious length and great balance. This wine drinks beautifully now, unfolding layers of flavour on days two and three after opening, which suggests it has a long life ahead for those with wine cellars. Joelle Thomson, Wine Writer & Author, NZ, 18.5/20 Pts.
