New French Oak Cuve’s

This year, we've introduced six new seasoned French Oak cuve's into the winery. We've predominantly used them to ferment our best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay parcels, allowing better oak and subtle flavour integration before sending the wines to mature in barrels. 

We've also taken the opportunity to experiment by fermenting a parcel of Sauvignon Blanc from our Barewood Hill vineyard in one of the cuve’s and inoculating it with a "pied de cuve". When fermenting in cuve's, you surrender control of the temperate. With a warmer ferment, you lose some of the primary tropical and stone fruit characters in exchange for palate weight, texture and mouthfeel. We plan to use this component to blend with some tank-fermented, fruit-forward Sauvignon Blanc to extra depth and complexity – stay tuned for the results in our Awatere River Sauv Blanc 2022.