We only make Prima Donna in the best years and 2009 was certainly one of these.  This was a splendid vintage in general and an exceptional one for pinot noir with perfect weather throughout the season.  Modest crops have given the wine excellent fruit expression.  This wine was made naturally using traditional Burgundian methods, with no added micro-organisms.  It was produced by blending the barriques which we felt best expressed our vineyard and the season.  Typically these come from vines over a quarter of a century old, which are on their own roots.
 
On release the wine has a vibrant crimson hue.  The unfolding aroma is multi-layered and complex, suggesting bright red fruits, blackberries, raspberries, black cherries and purple plums.  There are also savoury nuances reminiscent of roast meats and grilled mushrooms, intermingled with whiffs of wood-smoke.  The palate entry is seductively light but the wine seems to expand in the mouth to become rich and muscular, while retaining an even flow of velvety, but tangy, tannins.  These at the same time excite but soothe the taste buds and draw out the wine’s long lingering finish.  Although it will be enjoyed on release, with careful cellaring it should develop other fascinating nuances over the next decade and live well beyond this.

This was an excellent vintage for this traditional Bordeaux blend of sauvignon blanc and semillon.  Both portions underwent fermentation by their natural yeasts and aged sur lie for 11 months, the former in stainless steel and the latter in old French oak barrels.

In this traditional Bordeaux blend of grapes the sauvignon blanc’s powerful aromas and flavours are tamed by the semillon, which adds mid-palate weight and depth.  The exotic aromas and flavours suggest tropical spices, Turkish musk, passion-fruit and paw paw, supported by an array of citrus fruits and wild thyme.  The wine has good concentration in the mouth but is refined and elegant with a spine of tingling minerality and crisp acidity which complement its lingering, dry finish.
 
The French add semillon to sauvignon blanc to give the wine longevity.  Thus, unlike pure sauvignon blanc, it should age well with careful cellaring, developing additional fascinating nuances over the next 5-6 years and living for a decade or more.

This was an excellent season for riesling, which was grown on an outcrop of mineral-rich stony soil.  It was fermented at low temperatures to retain its zesty aromas and flavours. Citrus fruit characters and a little natural dissolved C to give O2 to give a hint of spritzig and tangy freshness.
 
The aromas and flavours are an enticing mix of limes, lemons, red apples, nectarines and white fleshed peaches.  At first sip it appears light and zesty but the wine then gradually expands to become concentrated and mouth-filling, while retaining a refined elegance.  Its plump fruitiness is matched by a seam of tangy minerality and natural acidity which courses through the wine, giving it balance and drawing out the length.  With careful cellaring it should develop a range of other enticements during the next 5 years and live for very many more.

The outcrop of land on which these grapes were grown consists largely of weathered stones.  Millions of years ago these were torn off New Zealand’s mighty Southern Alps and deposited in selected valleys.  This individual terroir has shaped this wine.

The grapes from which this wine was made came from the oldest gewürztraminer vines in the Waipara Valley and were planted by the pioneer vigneron John McCaskey in the 1970’s.  With an early budburst, a warm summer and a lingering, dry autumn, the season was ideal for this variety.  We waited until the fruit was ultra-ripe (28 brix) late in the season before picking a small crop.