Blank Canvas Marlborough Grüner Veltliner 2013

Blank Canvas Marlborough Grüner Veltliner 2013Dry style Nutty oak Mandarin Ripe peach "Drinking well right now, the 2013 vintage (5*) was mostly handled in tanks, but 25 per cent of the blend was fermented in oak puncheons (half new). Bright, light lemon green, it has a fragrant, spicy, vaguely toasty bouquet. Mouthfilling and crisp, its a lively, dry style (3. 3 grams litre residual sugar), with impressive flavour intensity and a lasting finish" Michael Cooper, Nov 2018 "Bright, light golden

• Dry style
• Nutty oak
• Mandarin
• Ripe peach

"Drinking well right now, the 2013 vintage (5*) was mostly handled in tanks, but 25 per cent of the blend was fermented in oak puncheons (half new). Bright, light lemon/green, it has a fragrant, spicy, vaguely toasty bouquet. Mouthfilling and crisp, it’s a lively, dry style (3.3 grams/litre residual sugar), with impressive flavour intensity and a lasting finish" Michael Cooper, Nov 2018

"Bright, light golden-hued straw-yellow colour with some depth, lighter on the rim. The bouquet is rich and concentrated with packed and layered aromatics showing exotic stonefruits with fresh herbs, nutty notes and some smoky oak. This exhibits secondary complexity and plenty of detail. Dry to taste and medium-full bodied, the palate has a fulsome presence, with concentrated layers of savoury stonefruits, dark herbs, toast and nutty oak flavours. The flavours form a solid and rounded core with very fine textures and a fine line, with the acidity providing cut and drive. The wine carries positively to a long, lingering finish. This is a mature Gruner Veltliner with a fulsome and solidly packed palate with an array of stonefruit, herb and nutty, toasty flavours with fine textures and acidity. Match with herb-marinated poultry and pork over the next 2+ years. Hand-picked fruit from the Adams’ ‘Berekah Estate’ vineyard, Rapaura, fermented in stainless-steel with 25% split equally into new and seasoned French oak puncheons for fermentation to 13.3% alc. and 3.3 g/L RS, the barrel portions aged for 8 months in oak" Raymond Chan, Nov 2018

"Grüner Veltliner is rare enough in New Zealand, but one with six years of bottle age is unique. But what a brilliant wine this is. Part of Matt Thomson and Sophie Parker-Thomson’s off-the-wall series of small volume Kiwi whites and reds, this wouldn’t look out of place in a line up of top Austrian examples of the grape. Partially barrel fermented in larger French oak barrels, it’s bright, focused and remarkably youthful, with notes of bay leaf and white pepper, crunchy minerality and pear and citrus fruit" Tim Atkin, Master of Wine, Oct 2019

"Silken-textured wine with orange zest and white pepper flavours plus some tree fruit and nectarine flavours. Subtle, pleasing wine" Bob Campbell, MW, Jul 2018

A wine of wonderful, pure aromatics this Grüner exemplifies classic notes of mandarin and ripe peach with an underlying trace of white pepper. The oak featuring in the wine is only obvious if you are told about it – it is there to provide richness and weight to the mid-palate, which is why we chose large French oak puncheons to do the job. A model vintage in Marlborough provided warm sunny days and cool nights which enabled all-important retention of acidity and ripeness of fruit. The result is a well-structured, luscious rendition of an Austrian classic.

The 2013 vintage heralded unusually warm days but characteristic cold nights. The Autumn was dry and the vintage was compact with varieties attaining ideal ripeness levels all near the same time. As a result of the warm vintage, Grüner Veltliner was ready slightly earlier than typical, achieving excellent ripe fruit flavours.

The fruit came from a single vineyard in the Rapaura subregion belonging to grower and long-term friend Malcolm Adams. Berekah Estate has two hectares of Gruner Veltliner planted with a mixture of the two clones available in New Zealand. It was at Matt’s suggestion that Malcolm took the plunge to plant the new-fangled variety and with now four vintages under its belt it is performing very well on the free-draining, young alluvial soils. The vines are VSP trained and cane-pruned.

The grapes were harvested by hand during the cool early morning near the end of the Marlborough harvest. Quick transport to the winery saw the grapes being de-stemmed, crushed and pressed in a gentle pneumatic press to avoid skin-contact and the extraction of harsh phenolics. A press cut was also made. Free run juice went primarily to stainless steel tank to ferment cool, and a 25% portion was split equally into new and used French oak puncheons (500L) where it matured for 8 months. We have six of these puncheons and we love the subtle oak character and weight it gives the wine. The batches were kept separate until January when the blend was assembled, and the finished wine was bottled in March.

Food Pairing: With its citrus and hints of white pepper, this wine is a beautiful dish with Ceviche (Marinated Fish Salad), any grilled white fish or chicken infused with orange or paired with an orange and almond salad.