This is a very sentimental wine for Michael from his most elevated vineyard, planted in 2001, that pays tribute to his mother, Kaye. It’s a vineyard with a stunning perspective over the other vineyards, the winery, house and to the forests and hills beyond. There are some lovely metaphors, no doubt. The site has a lot of quartz and mudstone, a smattering of volcanic soils that have eroded down from the volcanic plateau above, and produces a wine of fragrance, structure and complexity.
The grapes were hand-harvested and destemmed. The whole berries were gently worked and fermented with ambient yeast in small, open vats. A combination of gentle hand plunging and very primitive ‘pumpovers’ was employed for gentle extraction. After two weeks on skins the lots were pressed directly to French barriques, about 30% new, for maturation and in some cases to finish primary fermentation and malolactic fermentation. One very light addition of sulfur was employed in the spring and after a total of 15 months barrels were racked to tank to settle. The wine was bottled without just another small addition of sulfur and a gentle filtration. No fining.