Hans Family Estate - Zweigelt 2017

The vitality and exuberance of aromas is mouth-watering before the wine even reaches your palate. Intense ripe blackcurrant and plum jumps out at you like a sucker punch, enveloping Szechuan pepper, cloves, and a hint of nutmeg. Perfect balance in a powerhouse wine as it bursts with vibrant acidity, dark fruit at the core and firm tannins. dark, brooding and savoury melt with freshness on the long, long finish. A wine drinking wonderfully now in its youth but will soften as it matures. A collectors dream...

Vineyard: Wairau Valley - Rapaura Prime location. One of the warmest sites in the Wairau valley, special micro-climate from adjoining Wairau river. Naturally frost protected.

Soil Type: Shallow (<45cm) stony, gravel and sandy soil. Well drained, developed from stony alluvium.

Vine Age Years (planted 1996): 21 years

Plant Density: 5,500 vines/ha. The vineyard is close planted with high vine density. Row spacing: 2m. Vine spacing 1m.

Rootstock: 3309

Clonal Mix: 2003

Trellising: VSP. 2 short canes. Hand-pruned.

Canopy management (to produce optimal mature and healthy fruit and for wine making): shoot thinning to 12 shoots/vine, sucker removal, shoot positioning, partial leaf removal around fruiting zone on the east side (morning sun), lateral removal, trimming, top and sides bunch thinning, partial leaf removal around fruiting zone on the west side (evening sun), removal of all second sets.

Viticultural Practice: certified organic with BioGro

Yield tonnes/Ha: 3t/ha. All hand-picked and selected at less than 1 kg per vine with careful handling of the bunches to the on-site winery. No trucking.

Hand-picking only perfectly healthy grapes allows for long cold soaks for a slow, soft extraction of colour and flavours from the grape skins. The must then went naturally through a wild fermentation for a true expression of the grape variety and its terroir, as it is not influenced by added yeast. In total, the must was left 21 days on the skins before being pressed and transferred into French oak barriques (40% new) for the natural malolactic fermentation.

The young wine was matured for a long 18 months in the same barrels making it a contender for a long life. Unfined & unfiltered to retain the great flavours. Natural sediments may show.