Rabbit Island Nelson Pinot Gris 2023

Wine Analysis

The Vineyards

The 2023 Rabbit Island Nelson Pinot Gris is a blend of two of our Pinot Gris vineyard blocks. This allows us to take advantage of the varying clones and nuances each of these sites offers.

The Brightwater vines are grown in an extremely stony area of the vineyard where water and nutrient levels are low. This helps us to restrict the plants vigour and to crop at low levels. Our Brightwater Vineyard is situated 15km from the coast and is sheltered from the south by the Richmond ranges. The ‘soil’ is a combination of rocks and boulders which is very hard on the farm equipment but vital for holding the warmth of Nelson’s sun and for ripening the Pinot Gris grapes.

Our Rabbit Island Vineyard is situated on a wide river at. The soil is gravelly sandy loam, which is very sandy and free draining. These vineyards are about 1.5 kilometres from the sea, which helps moderate temperatures.

Winemakers Note

We used separate parcels of Pinot Gris from our loamy/sandy Rabbit Island and Brightwater vineyards to blend a juicy wine. The wine pulls together fruit from our varying Estate vineyards to make a lovely easy-drinking Pinot Gris.

Tasting Note

Our 2023 Rabbit Island Nelson Pinot Gris is delicate on the nose with fresh ginger notes and summer stonefruit aromas. The palate is succulent with lovely fruit weight and gentle bright acidity on the palate leaving a long finish on the wine.