The Vineyards

Nelson’s wonderful climate ensures adequate rainfall throughout the year, with the majority of the annual rain falling during the winter months. These wet winters are usually followed by a dry autumn, allowing the grapes optimum ripening conditions and low disease pressure. Nelson’s warm days and cool nights during the summer ripening period help produce wines with intense varietal characters and first class aromas.

As the northern hemisphere winter subsides, Seifrieds are preparing for the grape harvest in Nelson, New Zealand. Vintage (harvest) extends from late March through until early May, with the grapes being picked at the peak of their ripeness.

OUR VINEYARDS

Seifrieds currently have three producing vineyards.  Each vineyard, with its own soil and climatic characteristics, is planted with different varieties, each producing an array of unique flavours. During the winemaking, great care is taken to preserve these grape varietal flavours through to the wine.

An ongoing endeavour for Seifrieds has been in the production, with the majority of fruit being Estate grown, rather than the use of outside growers. This ensures complete control over all areas of grape production including clonal selection, irrigation, disease management and fruit quality.  

The "Rabbit Island" vineyard situated 20km west of Nelson city on the Waimea Plains, (near Rabbit Island) consists of 60ha of vineyard, which was first planted in 1988. Lying just 1.5km from the coast, the air temperature at this vineyard is heavily moderated by the sea. Because the Nelson region is well sheltered, with mountains to the east, west and south, wind is not a common problem; hence such damage to the vines is rare.

The soil in the Rabbit Island vineyard comprises a silty, sandy surface with a very gravelly subsurface, making the ground free draining, friable and easily worked.  Such soil is well suited to deep rooting crops such as grapes, as there is no clay pan. It has a low nutrient status due to its permeability, which allows restriction of vegetative growth. The Appleby River which runs through the Waimea Plains ensures the water table remains relatively high and offers an abundant supply of underground water. Varieties grown here include Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir.

The "Redwood Valley" vineyard is a 30ha north facing slope, which has a solid clay soil structure. Such soil enables high water holding capacity during the wet periods of the year and a dry soil during the warm summer, which is important in reducing the water available to the vine - limiting the irrigation on this site during ripening helps to concentrate the natural fruit flavours of the grapes.  Varieties grown here include Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Riesling and Gewürztraminer. This site was first planted in the early eighties and now has Seifrieds most established vines, producing fruit with fantastic depth and complex flavours.

Due to the north facing aspect of this vineyard and the lack of irrigation, ripening times are often earlier than vineyards on the Rabbit Island vineyard.

The "Brightwater" vineyard is Seifrieds newest block and is still in the early stages of vine development, with the oldest plantings of this block going back to just 1999. When complete, the vineyard will be 70ha with the main varieties being Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Malbec, Syrah and Zweigelt. The soil at this site ranges from large gravelly areas, to light sandy loam soils, which result in a very porous soil structure with little water holding capacity. Because of this, a large earth dam was constructed nearby in 2002 to store water for summer irrigation. This vineyard lies about 15kms from the sea (10kms from the winery) and is nestled under the Richmond Ranges on the southern end of the Waimea Plains. The temperature at this site fluctuates more than the other vineyards due to its distance from the coastline, with less maritime influences playing a role.

New techniques and technology both in the vineyard and winery are important features for Seifrieds to staying innovative and competitive in the market.  An example of this is the weather data loggers in each of our vineyards. This helps gain information about climate variation from vineyard to vineyard and allows more informed decisions regarding new plantings, harvest dates and disease management.

At Seifrieds, all grafting has been done in-house since the first vineyard planting began in 1973, using various types of Phylloxera resistant rootstock. Almost 50,000 cuttings a year are currently being grafted, enabling a constant supply of high quality, disease free plants for future vineyard establishment.

 Seifrieds are also members of "Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand"