Grace 2008

Tasting notes
A delightful wine, with an elegance and softness that renders ‘Grace’ the perfect name. A perfect accompaniment to fine cuisine, the palate is refreshing with elements of lemon sorbet, tangelo and nectarine. Subtle use of oak and fine mineral notes give this wine great structure and length. Fresh shellfish and grilled lobster partner well, whilst the delicate flavours of Asian cuisine are also a perfect accompaniment. This wine will age gracefully for up to five years and is a pleasure to drink now.

Viticulture
The grapes for ‘Grace’ were sourced from our Paritua Vineyard blocks of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Only the best parcels of fruit were chosen from vines grown along the Paritua stream, on the red metal soils of the ‘Triangle’ region of Hawkes Bay. The vines are manually leaf plucked and bunch thinned to achieve optimal fruit quality. Once the perfect balance between acid, flavour and physiological ripeness is achieved, the fruit is hand harvested and taken to the winery for pressing.

Winemaking
Whole bunches of handpicked fruit were placed in the winery cool room for overnight chilling. The next day the fruit was transferred to the basket press to extract low yields of premium juice. This juice was transferred directly to barrel, where 100% barrique fermentation took place. Approximately 60% of the juice is fermented by naturally occurring yeast strains. Post ferment, the wines were lees stirred and racked once, during which a lees selection was made and returned to the barrels. Total time in barrel is approximately 10 months, after which the individual barriques were blended, lightly fined, filtered and bottled in February 2009.

HARVEST: 2008
200 CASES MADE
8 BARRIQUES MADE
12% ALCOHOL/VOLUME
TA: 7.9 GRAMS/LITRE
pH: 3.09
CLOSURE: STELVIN LUX +