The Wine

Stephenson Vineyard

The Stephenson’s vineyard is a truly boutique, family owned vineyard, located on the stony gravels of the beautiful Waipara Valley.
As a husband and wife team, The Stephenson’s established their vineyard in 2007, with a hands-on approach, they are passionate about growing and hand-working quality fruit from the small estate vineyard. They have a huge respect for their environment, where they live, grow and craft wine, and have adopted organic practices. Small plantings of Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Riesling make up their two-hectare vineyard.

Kerner Estate Vineyard

The confluence wines come from the Kerner Estate vineyard, a small family-run organic vineyard which surrounds the Kerners house in Fareham Lane, Marlborough. A gifted site nestled at the confluence of the Wairau and Waihopai Rivers at the western end of the Wairau Valley. Its dense soils providing length and concentration, and cooler temperatures provided by the slightly elevated geographical position and being some distance from the sea, allowing the grapes ripen to slower, intensifying and protecting lifted and fresh aromatics.

The Kerners have just over 10 ha of land of which over 8 ha are in grapes, all cultivated within a biological framework of ecological agriculture and certified organic.  The vineyard is planted to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, the remainder to Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. It’s the latter variety that has taken connoisseurs by surprise. There is not a lot of Pinot Blanc planted in Marlborough, or NZ for that matter, with only 27Ha planted nationally. Planted as something different to trial, their Pinot Blanc has become one of a few examples in the country, desired by a small number of keen aficionados, winemakers included.

Colere Pinot Gris - Pinot Blanc

After hand-picking the fruit on April 24th 2012, the bunches for this 50/50 blend were whole-cluster pressed and drained straight into seasoned French oak barriques for fermentation with native yeast from the vineyard. The ferment proceeded over about three months in the cool cellar of Mahi guided by winemaker Brian Bicknell, and then left on the yeast lees in old oak barrels for an extended period of 4 years where it softened and gained savoury characters.

This wine shows the attributes of growing this variety in a cool site, a range of richness and fruit characters, with lifted citrus notes, quince, poached pear and crème caramel. A rich, full and complex wine supported by crisp acidity, spice from the Pinot Gris and barrel fermentation, with freshness (citrus notes) from the Pinot Blanc. Flavours of dried fruit and meadow hay, hints of spice and pear.  The extended ageing in older seasoned oak on fine lees, is also evident adding further weight and texture.

A big wine that never shy’s away.

Colere Chardonnay

The 2014 confluence Chardonnay displays the clarity of varietal expression and hard work of the Kerners in the vineyard, coupled with fairly subtle winemaking inputs.

The fruit was hand-picked and hand-sorted, Whole-bunch-pressed and barrel-fermented in 30% new and 70% old French oak with indigenous yeasts and aged for a further 18months. The wine was allowed to go through full malo-lactic fermentation to soften the acids and imparting impressive intensity and plenty of fat.

While there's some deep texture and leesy creaminess to the wine, it's driven by freshness, a hint of struck stone, ripe pear and citrus fruit freshness. The fruit forms a concentrated core and the mouthfeel is rounded, but the palate has good underlying acidity providing liveliness and a slippery, smooth flow that carries to a long, toasty-nuanced finish. This is a full, flavoursome Chardonnay with ripe fruit and toasty oak.

Te Hera Vineyard

The Te Muna Terrace Pinot Noir comes from Te Hera vineyard a small, family-run organic vineyard, the passion of John Douglas, one of the very first to plant out at Te Muna Road in 1996, primarily in Pinot Noir. John is of the belief that a vineyard and winery are a living biological system, and that the winegrower’s role in both vineyard and the winery is one of nurturance.

Situated just east of Martinborough, Te Hera is planted on 5 hectares of terraced alluvial gravel formed by the Huangarua River an alluvial loam typical of Martinborough, a soil type laid down by the river circa 75,000 years ago. The Te Muna area is essentially a geological and geographical extension of the town’s Martinborough Terraces. However, the geographical location of Te Muna with its higher altitude and more southerly location (only by a few kilometres) means a slightly later time for harvest.