2025 Whitehaven Marlborough Gewürztraminer
$32.00
TASTING NOTE
Colour / Appearance: Medium lemon with a bright clarity.
Aroma / Bouquet: Fragrant varietal aromas of rose petal, orange blossom and ginger spice notes.
Palate: Lush palate with flavours of lychee, ginger spice, clover honey and ripe citrus. This medium-bodied wine has balanced sweetness with a long, cleansing finish.
Cellaring: We recommend enjoying our 2025 Gewurztraminer while it is young and fresh, but the wine can develop nicely beyond 5-7 years if carefully cellared.
Serve: Lightly chilled.
Food Match: We recommend dishes with aromatic spices and flavours, such as Moroccan, Thai or Chinese dishes.
WINE ANALYSIS
Alcohol: 14%
Residual Sugar: 19.6g/L
Titratable Acidity: 4.4g/L
pH: 3.72
VITICULTURE & VINIFICATION
Harvest Date: March 13th and April 2nd, 2025
Climate: The Winter season prior to commencement of growth in Spring 2024 provided the perfect amount of rain to ensure strong, healthy early season growth. Higher than average inflorescence numbers and then one of the most perfect and quick flowering periods in memory ensured a very high crop potential and full bunches. By mid-season, grapevine phenology was tracking well in advance of the long-term average. This changed in the second half of the season with milder growing conditions and the larger crop slowing ripening down. Substantial fruit thinning was often required to ensure timely ripeness at harvest. Dry conditions in the lead up to harvest, along with the clean flowering, ensured disease pressure remained low. Vintage commenced in early March, with the majority of fruit harvested in the last 2 weeks of March and early April. Conditions remained dry and fruit remained in excellent condition.
Grape Growing: Fruit for this wine came from Whitehaven’s Rapaura site, and Riverstone Vineyard in the Waihopai Valley. Pruned to 2-3 cane VSP, these vines are carefully managed over the growing season with the aim of producing beautifully ripe, clean fruit come harvest time.
Winemaking: The fruit from both vineyards was hand-picked on a cool autumn morning. At the winery the grapes were destemmed and crushed before being pumped to the press. We let this must sit overnight in the press, before pressing off the following morning. The juice was then let to settle for 48 hours and then the clear juice was racked off and warmed for fermentation, using an aromatic yeast strain. The ferment was regularly tasted and then stopped when we felt the balance of the wine was right. We then let the wine sit on light lees for 3-4 months, before stabilizing and filtering. The wine was then bottled on the 22nd October, 2025.
ACCOLADES
2026 Mundus Vini Spring Tasting, Silver
Aromas of Turkish delight, old fashioned red roses and raspberry marshmallow-like flavours all combine on the nose of this Gewürztraminer. It's a medium sweet style with 19.6 grams residual sugar per litre, which brings weight that is balanced by notes of freshness from Marlborough's cool nights - this gives freshness and acidity to this wine's lingering taste. 17.5/20, Joelle Thompson
