Most of our Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is harvested in the cool of the morning by machine. This ensures quick harvesting when flavours are just right, and just a small amount of contact with the juice. The remainder of Sauvignon Blanc and the other white varieties are skilfully hand-picked to allow delicate extraction of the juice when pressed.

Juice is gently squeezed from the grapes in the wine presses and sent to either tanks or barrels. Our modern presses allow us to choose whether to protect the grapes from air during this stage, preserving the fruit aromas in some varieties.

The pressed juice may be left to settle clear in tanks, or put straight into tanks or barrels for fermentation.

Clear juice fermented with specialised yeast in tanks give the most fruit-expressive wines, while the cloudy juice naturally fermented in oak vessels has more emphasis on texture and complexity. Our Sauvignon Blanc may have a portion of 5-10% barrel fermented wine, while other varieties such as Chardonnay can be 100% barrel fermented.

Dependent on the variety the wine may age in tanks or barrels until it reaches a harmonious stage in its development.

Once the wine is ready to blend, the components are combined in tanks. After settling, the wine is chilled to below freezing to prevent crystals appearing in the wine later. It is then filtered clear to remove any sediment.

The finished wine is bottled on our own bottling line. The bottling line can flush bottles with inert gas and uses screw cap closures to minimise the amount of harmful air that can enter during bottling. This helps preserve the fruit aromas and flavours.

Labels are applied at the time of bottling and then packed into cases, before being stored in our temperature controlled warehouse prior to dispatch to customers.