PINOT GRIS - THE PERFECT PARTY POUR
Jules Taylor explains why her ever popular Pinot Gris is perfect for a party.
FOOD MATCH
This Pinot Gris is great with Thai or Vietnamese flavours - try pairing it with pork belly spring rolls or a traditional Vietnamese Pho . Alternatively try it with freshly caught scallops fried in butter with a touch of garlic and chilli.
MMM! Get the recipeS!WINEMAKERS NOTES
Forget what you think you know about Pinot Gris and try this tasty little treat. Jules conjures up some winemaker witchcraft to coax every last ounce of personality out of this subtle little grape.
AROMA & FLAVOUR
This wine explodes on the nose with a fruit salad of peach, nectarine, melon and mandarin combining with honey, nougat and floral notes for an intense and inviting array of aromas. The palate is elegant, dry and concentrated with ripe, tropical, citrus and stone fruit flavours and delicious textural creaminess from the wild fermentation. It is a charming mouthful, concluding in a long, smooth finish.
VINTAGE NOTES
The 2022 season started with a very wet spring following hot on the heels of above average winter rainfall. Budburst was earlier than in 2021, and the vines’ potential for the 2022 season was there for all to see! Settled weather in late spring led to a good flowering across all varieties and some high temperatures in January made for healthy canopies that were well poised to carry the fruit through to ripening. Temperatures cooled down leading into harvest and a spell of rain in February made for some slightly nerve-wracking moments. But in the end, in typical Marlborough fashion, the sun came out and the vines worked their magic! Pinot Gris was the first fruit to arrive at the winery from the early ripening Meadowbank site, with fruit from the cooler Lower Wairau sites following along ten days later.
VINIFICATION
Around 56% of the fruit for this Pinot Gris came from the Meadowbank vineyard in the Taylor Pass sub-region, with the remainder coming from two unirrigated vineyards in the Lower Wairau. The grapes were a mixture of the older 2/15 clone and newer 457 and 52B clones which have been producing beautiful little berries full of concentrated stonefruit and spice flavours. The parcel of 52B fruit was hand harvested, with the remainder picked by machine. In the winery the majority of the juice was pressed and settled in tank then racked for a slow, cool fermentation with selected yeast to preserve fruit characters and freshness. Jules retained higher levels of solids through the fermentation to enhance mouthfeel and texture. The hand harvested portion of grapes was whole bunch pressed to old barrels for a wild ferment with natural yeasts. This portion of wine also underwent a full malolactic fermentation with some lees stirring. The components were blended in late July and bottled in November.
