Winemaker Notes
With a climate that is drier, cooler and windier weather than the neighboring Wairau Valley, Awatere vines are challenged by lower fertility soils, and produce small, concentrated berries. Low yields and artisan winemaking deliver a true expression of the valley’s climate and ancient soils: perfumed, textural, palate-led Sauvignon Blancs with creamy, rounded acidity and minerality.
A spirit of daring, veracity, and custodianship is as integral to our wines as the rooster crest featured on our label. Both are reflections of the Vavasour family’s storied past in Anglo-Norman England, where an early Vavasour forebear is believed to have been a taster for William the Conqueror. Today, led by winemaker Stu Marfell, born and raised in the Awatere Valley and recently named Winemaker of the Show at the 2018 New Zealand International Wine Awards, we continue to capture the extremes and nuances of the Awatere Valley in our wines. History, passion and a good amount of curiosity combine to make our winemaking a constant evolution, and our wines unmistakably Awatere.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
An icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.