Hawkes Bay

Great Dirt Collection

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> A case is 6x 750ml bottles.

> Freight included for orders of $150 or more.

Tasting Notes

A wine from the Howard’s vineyard located on the edge of the Ahuriri Estuary at Bay View. The marine properties of this former seabed uplifted by the 1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake shines through in the saline mineral character of the wine.

Vineyards and Winemaking

The fruit was handpicked and chilled overnight before being loaded as whole clusters into the press and run directly to barrel for fermentation with indigenous yeasts. Once dry a portion was allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation to lower acidity and add complexity to the finished wine. The wine then underwent extended barrel ageing with occasional lee’s stirring before blending and bottling without finings in September 2020.

Soils And Viticulture

This single vineyard wine is sourced from Brian and Leslie Howard’s Bay View vineyard. Situated at the western edge of Bay View Village, the soils here reflect their maritime origin. Prior to the 1931 Napier earthquake this was a tidal estuary where the Esk River met the Ahuriri inner harbour, the land now drained still retains remnants of its past with seashell deposits interspersed throughout the maritime clays. Planted in 1998 the vineyard is dry farmed and intensively managed to produce fruit of the highest quality.