Limpid straw/gold, with coppery highlights.
Pungent, musky, dried fruit (quince, apricot) bouquet, with a multitude of spice hints: dried ginger, coriander and fennel seeds, caraway. Exciting and exotic: hoisin and lemongrass and torn asian herbs and sesame and wild honey. Begins viscous and super-concentrated, but diffuses in a lush and invigorating way, spreading to coat and refresh every part of the palate. Fantastical, in its way, that a wine so profligate and expansive could remain so focused and vital.
93 points – Mike Bennie and Gary Walsh – The Wine front NZ
Incredible, almost electric golden colour to this wine. Smells toasty and like ginger snap biscuits, with lemon-lime citrussy scents in tow. Wild texture too – shows with slickness but also a jagged line of acidity that snaps awake the wine, dragging it long and fresh. There’s a huge clash of biscotti nuttiness, shortbread sweetness, preserved lemon tanginess and a slightly briny lift going on. Thrilling to drink and so far from stock-standard of ‘classic stickies’. Bravo.
1.8 tonnes/acre, an inclusive pick: 85% noble rot, 15% shriveled golden berries.
Harvested in late May, at 39 brix. Whole bunch pressed, unsettled, fermented with vineyard yeasts and no temperature control in tank, for 18 months. Bottled unfined, but filtered, on the summer equinox, December 2009. 14.7% alcohol, pH 3.59, TA 5.8, RS 110g/l.
