Mahi Marlborough Pinot Gris 2021

Mahi Marlborough Pinot Gris 2021Dry style Elegant Creamy Long finish Characters from this special vineyard in Ward give this Pinot Gris complexity and depth. The palate has an elegant structure with a creamy, textural mid palate and a long finish. This year, our 21st, was a very distinctive one characterised by the early timing of it, the small crops, and also the cleanliness of the fruit. Starting on March the 4th it was the earliest start, and finish, that we have had, and the

• Dry style
• Elegant
• Creamy
• Long finish

Characters from this special vineyard in Ward give this Pinot Gris complexity and depth. The palate has an elegant structure with a creamy, textural mid-palate and a long finish.

This year, our 21st, was a very distinctive one characterised by the early timing of it, the small crops, and also the cleanliness of the fruit. Starting on March the 4th it was the earliest start, and finish, that we have had, and the weird thing was that it was not a hot vintage, so it wasn’t heat that caused the grapes to ripen early. The key factor was the low crops, as healthy vines will ripen a lower crop faster than a heavier one, and these low crops were caused by an untimely rain period over flowering, which was in early December. The rain caused the pollen to fall to the ground, rather than fertilise flowers, leaving small open bunches, that allowed air to flow around the berries and so we had no Botrytis at all. Covid still had an impact in that, for the first time, all of our team were NZ-based, rather than the usual array of nationalities, but it was a super experienced group, and everything flowed beautifully. It ended up being our shortest and smallest vintage for a while and it was so easy that no-one even got tired?! Felt like the vintage that wasn’t but it will provide some seriously good wines!

Our Marlborough Pinot Gris comes from one vineyard located just outside the township of Ward in the Awatere Valley. It is owned and managed by Sara Davies and Andrew Craig. The fruit was machine-picked to bin so maceration was minimised and a portion of this juice was barrel-fermented in older French oak to give greater weight, though ensuring that wood is not evident on the nose. The balance of the wine was fermented cool to retain the fruit characters that come from this special vineyard The final blend this year was made solely from free-run juice, as we feel it gives a more elegant and subtle wine, especially with Pinot Gris, that has quite ‘grey’ coloured skins and is inherently quite tannic.

Mahi, meaning ‘our work, our craft’, began in 2001, fulfilling a dream of ours. After 15 vintages it was time to do our own thing. With a strong focus on single-vineyard wines, and now backed up by a series of premium regional wines from Marlborough, the idea behind Mahi is to respect and promote the individuality of the various vineyards. The Mahi symbol represents the strength, life and growth of the native New Zealand frond (fern), with the understanding that wine should never be rushed to bottle, respecting its ability to evolve naturally over time.