2023 Changes - Rose
It’s amazing how the season and harvest can change so quickly. This volatility is stressful but makes winemaking exciting and keeps you drawn in every year.
2023 threw us some crazy curveballs due to the weather and Cyclone Gabrielle in particular. It was wild, unfortunately some vineyards were destroyed, others lost all of their fruit, but we had to keep rolling and adjust.
Changes Rose is the product of this adaptation, making something beautiful out of the chaos.
Red berry, mandarin and brown pear skin. The barrel fermentation has added an enticing savoury, wet stone character that also comes through on the palate. This wine is dry, textural and delicious to drink with a beautiful play between tannin, bitterness and acidity.
Only 1164 bottles produced.
Details
Raukawa
Planted in 2003, the organic Paritua vineyard sits on an old riverbed of gently rolling and flat land beneath the limestone rich Raukawa hills. The soils are made up of free draining “red metal” gravels overlaid by alluvium derived by loess, volcanic ash, greywacke and limestone. Accompanied by high sunshine hours and low rainfall, this site is perfect for red varieties.
Season
La Nina dominated the 2023 growing season, creating volatile weather patterns, and a cool Spring and Summer period that never saw a day over 30 degrees. Late January and early February experienced some extremely wet periods culminating in cyclone Gabrielle. We were lucky that most of our vineyards escaped the worst and the vineyard guys were right on their game.
A somewhat Indian summer followed, which eased the pressure and allowed our fruit to ripen perfectly and slowly with fine and restrained flavours.
Winemaking
100% Merlot
Fruit was destemmed and pressed direct to tank with no pressings cut. After a night of settling the juice was racked to old barrels, taking most solids with it.
A natural ferment took an age to kick off, but when it did, it was healthy and produced amazing aromatics.
The wine was topped, allowed to go through malolactic fermentation to create softness and left without sulphur for 4 months.
No fining or filtration. Minimal sulphur was added two weeks before bottling.
Alc - 11.0%
Red berry, mandarin and brown pear skin.
The barrel fermentation has added an enticing savoury, wet stone character that also comes through on the palate.
This wine is dry, textural and delicious to drink with a beautiful play between tannin, bitterness and acidity.