Starborough Pinot Gris 2016

Starborough Pinot Gris is an elegant wine with a finely concentrated palate displaying aromatic white and yellow stonefruits lifted by exotic florals, rose-petal elements and complex nutty and flinty nuances. The wine shows excellent fruit intensity and silky texture, leading to a lingering smooth finish.

Starborough Pinot Gris is bright, light straw-yellow colour with some depth, paler edged. This has an elegantly concentrated and finely poised nose with an array of fresh aromatics at the core, showing white and yellow stonefruits, nuances of exotic florals and rose-petals, along with suggestions of honeysuckle, fermentation esters and mineral elements.

Accolades & Awards

• Awarded Champion Pinot Gris Trophy – Marlborough Wine Show
• Awarded Gold Medal – Marlborough Wine Show, 2016
• Awarded 93/100 Points – Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Aug 2016
• Awarded 18.5/ 20 Points – Raymond Chan, Sept 2016
• Awarded Silver Medal – Air New Zealand Wine Awards, 2016

Dryish to taste and medium-bodied, the palate is finely concentrated with aromatic white and yellow stonefruits lifted by exotic florals, rose-petal elements and complexing nutty and flinty nuances. The palate has depth, following a light phenolic-textured line with integrated, lacy acidity, and the wine carries to a long and lingering finish of stonefruits and florals. This is a finely concentrated dryish Pinot Gris with aromatic and exotic fruit, light textures and fresh acid poise.

Serve with Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese fare over the next 3 years. Hand-picked Pinot Gris fruit, 65% from ‘O’Dwyers Farm’, Rapaura, and 35% from the ‘Starborough Terrace’ and ‘Long Lane’ sites, Awatere, cool-fermented in stainless-steel with 10% in seasoned oak to 13.6% alc. and 5.8 g/L RS, the wine aged 3 months on light lees” Raymond Chan, Sept 2016

An elegant wine with a finely concentrated palate displaying aromatic white and yellow stonefruits lifted by exotic florals, rose-petal elements and complex nutty and flinty nuances. The wine shows excellent fruit intensity and silky texture, leading to a lingering smooth finish.

The fruit was sourced from three Starborough vineyards, all of which have complemented each other to produce an elegantly balanced and complex wine. The yield on the two cane VSP (vertical shoot position) trained vines were closely monitored through the growing season and targeted shoot and bunch thinning was performed to produce low yielding intensely concentrated fruit. A hand-pick took plce in the cool of early morning at peak maturity and flavour development.

The fruit was crushed and pressed quickly at cool temperatures to retain fruit flavour and freshness. A 10% portion of the juice was fermented in seasoned French oak barrels adding weight, texture and complexity to the finished wine. Before blending, the individual components were left on light yeast lees for three months helping build additional texture and creaminess to the palate.