awatere valley
“it all starts in the vineyard”
All our grapes are growing on the mighty Brêloft vineyard situated in the Awatere Valley, which is a stone throw away from the Awatere river. The rows are West-East orientated, which means the bunches facing South are exposed to the morning sun. The bunches facing North are exposed to the hotter afternoon sun which gives us ripe and intense flavours.
VINE-TO-VINE ATTENTION
For us, there’s no standard recipe to follow to create the best environment for all vines. Young vines, older vines, vines who struggle throughout the growing season or vines who are too vigorous; we approach every vine differently to maintain the quality we want.
A few examples of vine-to-vine attention would be the way we prune the vines, the way we leaf pluck by hand and how much we drop fruit.
SAUVIGNON BLANC
The grapes come from the River Block; a stone throw away from the Awatere River.
Leaf pluck by hand on the cooler morning sun side.
Opening the hot afternoon sun side a few weeks prior hand picking the grapes.
CHENIN BLANC
Rocky soil with a bit of clay
Leaf pluck by hand and turning the bunches to get more intensity in the grapes and more colour on the skins.
We only pick the most golden coloured bunches on the North facing side, as we then get most of the amazing flavours of Chenin Blanc.
PINOT NOIR
The grapes come from a slightly higher plateau in the Pinot Noir block.
De-lateralized in the fruiting zone and also leaf pluck by hand on both sides.
One bunch per shoot with shoulders removed for optimum ripeness.