Hunter's Marlborough
In the last 25 years the province of Marlborough has moved from virtual obscurity to become New Zealand’s largest and best-known wine region with a reputation for producing some of the world’s finest sauvignon blanc. This huge potential was something that was recognised back in 1983 by Jane Hunter and her late husband Ernie when they founded their first fledgling winery in the picturesque Wairau Valley.
Since those early years Jane has been owner, viticulturist and managing director of what has become one of New Zealand’s most established wineries, Hunter’s Wines. Under her expertise, the original vineyard area has increased by 2.5 times its original size and the company’s annual output has grown to around 60,000 cases of wine, nearly half of which is exported.
Winemaker's Notes
Rich ripe plum, berry and subtle forest floor aromas marry together for a smooth medium bodied Pinot Noir. The palate shows persistent rich cherry/plum flavours and mild spicy oak making an enjoyable and easy drinking wine.
Vintage Conditions
Early summer was a period of consistently dry weather, long warm days and cool nights. With good healthy vines and strong summer growth, crop loads were managed by shoot and fruit thinning. In March we saw a quick cool southerly blast with some rain pass through which slowed down the ripening, a lot of work was done to reduce the leaf shading of the fruit. The weather cleared to the warm days and cool nights that Marlborough is well known for, this caused a longer growing season - ideal for the Sauvignon Blanc and aromatics. The fruit was picked on its flavour balance with slightly lower sugar levels, strong intense flavours and good crisp acidity.
Vinification
This wine was made in small batches using a variety of different winemaking techniques to try and enhance the individual clones and vineyards character. A portion of the fruit was hand picked and was plunged in small open vats until completion of ferment. This allowed lighter fruit components to be expressed. The balance of the fruit was machine picked and fermented in stainless steel tanks. The ferment was pumped over twice a day with temperatures of up to 32° degrees being reached to extract the colour and tannins for the backbone of the wine. A percentage of the ferment was transferred to barrels to complete the fermentation in new oak. The remaining components were aged in one and two year old French oak barriques for ten months before being blended. The wine was given a light egg white fining before being bottled.
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