The 2021 Vintage Report

With all of our grapes now in the winery, and winemaking well underway, our 2021 Vintage is starting to take shape. And it’s certainly one to watch. Here’s what our winemakers had to say on the 2021 Vintage.

Marlborough
Overall, 2021 was an excellent year for Marlborough and for Sauvignon Blanc. An early Spring brought forward budburst but cold November rain drew out flowering and late frosts contributed to a lower than ideal fruit set. A dry January was followed by rain in March that assisted ripening, bringing the fruit to excellent condition. We started harvesting early, but not exceptionally so compared with recent vintages.

Sauvignon Blanc
Our Sauvignon Blancs are bursting with tropical fruits, perfumed thiols, displaying great depth and purity. Budburst was early in our Marlborough vineyards and fruit set light. After a wet start the season was very dry with average temperature.  As a result, we had a nice long ripening period even with an earlier harvest.

Light crops and a long ripening season have resulted in flavour and concentration. This year we see lots of ripe tropical and fruit salad notes. We're also seeing plenty of perfumed thiols; Blackcurrant, Passionfruit, and Broom. We’re bottling the first of our Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc now, with our Black Label Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc still on lees, developing yet more weight and complexity. We’ll bottle that in a few months.

Pinot Noir
Low crops have resulted in some incredible tasting fruit across all three of the valleys we grow in.  Our Pinot Noirs are deeply coloured and flavoursome. They’re just starting their secondary, or malolactic, fermentation now.

Rosé + Pinot Gris
The Rosés are vibrant and our Pinot Gris are fresh and balanced.

Our Organic wines
We are thrilled with the quality of fruit coming from our Organic vineyards. The Sauvignon Blanc is displaying its typical characters (mineral, citrus, and spice) and showing real depth with layers of flavour. We will allow this to further develop on lees also.

Hawke’s Bay
Warm Spring temperatures brought forward flowering, kicking off the season early. A trend that continued with the earliest harvest we’ve ever had from Hawke’s Bay - starting with Chardonnay on the 23rd of February. No pressure at all to pick as the weather was kind and the fruit condition excellent.

Chardonnay
Low crop levels meant concentrated and ripe flavours.  Both our Irongate and Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay look weighty and flavoursome.

Reds
The Syrah and Bordeaux reds are shaping up to be intense, dense, and long at this early stage.

Another vintage, another exciting selection of sustainably crafted wines. This is the stage of winemaking where the magic happens and we live for it. Here’s to 2021!