Tasting notes: Riverby Estate Pinot Gris
Riverby Estate Pinot Gris. This Pinot Gris is a pale straw, lemon in colour, and highly aromatic. With spicy, ripe pears, peaches and nectarines and also lovely florals, even delicate old roses, on the nose. Perhaps even a hint of cinnamon. On the palate the myriad of spices continue and the cinnamon is particularly appealing. It is delightfully crisp and refreshing with mouth crunching pears and stone fruit. Overall, it is very clean, crisp and enticing with a long lingering, quite enchanting and very elegant finish. This wine promises to develop considerable complexity and appeal with careful bottle ageing.
Food:
Try with Thai or Chinese.
Riverby Estate derives its name from the tranquil Opawa River, which winds through the Marlborough Region of New Zealand. As a result the river’s rich resources were invaluable to the local farmers as well as the source of their favourite meal; the Rainbow Trout. In the 1930s Opawa River was diverted to stop Blenheim from flooding. Therefore, the landscape was changed forever. That is to say Its redirection inadvertently transformed Riverby Estate into one of New Zealand’s finest wine growing properties. Riverby Estate now shows no sign of the Opawa, apart from the tales of long time resident Peter Matthews. He relays the stories of his father Ellis catching trout where the river once flowed.
Riverby Estate is ideally positioned in the very heart of Marlborough, New Zealand. Situated at Jacksons Road, Blenheim, immediately adjacent to renowned Marlborough Vineyards; Cloudy Bay, Stoneleigh and Allan Scott.
Their Pinot Gris block is now gaining some vine age and this is starting to be reflected in our increasingly complex Pinot Gris style. It is important with Pinot Gris to carefully manage yields as left unrestrained this variety can easily get out of hand. Well managed, with low yields, an enticing, crisp and complex wine is achievable. Given the right vineyard location and an ideal growing season. The grapes for this wine were cropped at less than 10 tonnes to the hectare and harvested at perfect ripeness in the cool of the night. It is 100% Pinot Gris and was handled throughout in stainless steel, with extended time on lees to aid complexity before being bottled.
