Mahi Wines
https://mahiwine.co.nz
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Our Thoughts
Well that was one of the strangest vintages I have ever worked, and it continues to be so even after the fruit for Mahi is all inside. One of the many joys of vintage is working with a great group of people from all around the world focussing solely on making the best wines we can and sharing time, ideas, wines, beers and generally enjoying doing what we do, especially as we only get one shot at it a year. This one was so different as we all worked to stay as isolated as possible. I was initially concerned that we may not even be able to pick the grapes and then of course the added challenge of ensuring that the team stayed as safe as possible, its definitely kept us on our toes.
Thankfully I have to say that it is a vintage of outstanding quality. The fruit was very clean, the crops were balanced and there was no pressure to pick in terms of rain coming through or grapes deteriorating, so life was easy in that regard.
Rainfall through the period of December 21st through to April 7th was only 20mm, which is a record low over that essential period for us and the temperatures through the season were the closest that we have had to the 'normal' for quite a few years. You will see below that deviation from the Long Term Average was less this year and I suppose the closest one of the recent vintages was the 2019. Cool ripening has given us some pretty intense flavours and nice acidities so we are expecting some stunning wines.
Produced By: Rob Agnew and Victoria Raw, The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research
This year, which is the 20th vintage for Mahi, started two weeks later than 2019, on March the 20th, but finished only one day later, with our last lot of fruit coming in on the 9th, so for Mahi it was one of our most condensed vintages. Again this year we had a great multi-cultural team with people from China, India, the US, Ireland and NZ, and even though we haven't seen as much of each other as normal it has worked well and is not a vintage I will forget.
The Pinots will start coming off skins next week and I look forward to sharing some of the 20s as we get around our markets, hopefully, to celebrate 20 vintages with our distributors and customers.
All the best,
Brian
Getting Mahi
Right from the start, now 20 vintages ago, we have always aimed the styles of Mahi wines to be subtle and complex, wines that work with food rather than dominating it so have sold most of our wines through restaurants and independent retail.
As most of these people are closed at the moment you can get your Mahi fix through our website if you are in New Zealand, or for international customers we are working with our agents and will have a list of retailers that are doing deliveries up on our website early next week. There are selected retailers in NZ also offering this service and we'll include them too.
New Chardonnay Releases
M A R L B O R O U G H
C H A R D O N N A Y 2 0 1 8
This fruit comes from three vineyards; the Taylor Vineyard which is in the Rapaura area, the Twin Valleys vineyard and a very small amount from the Mahi home block in front of the winery.
All the grapes are hand picked prior to whole-cluster pressing. The juice goes to barrel with high solids and ferments totally with the indigenous yeasts. All the wine is fermented in French oak barriques and sits on the yeast lees for eleven months prior to bottling.
T W I N V A L L E Y S
C H A R D O N N A Y 2 0 1 7
This wine comes from a small parcel in the Twin Valley Vineyard, located in the cooler end of the Valley. The vines are all from the favoured Clone 95 which we have found suits this area as the fruit comes in with good acid balance. The site is elevated and cool, with complex soils, and we have now worked with Pete and Anne Reed for 18 vintages so feel we are getting a good understanding of the site.
The grapes are hand-picked and then whole-cluster pressed. All the wine is then fermented with indigenous yeast in French oak barriques and sits on lees for fifteen months prior to bottling.
A L C H E M Y
C H A R D O N N A Y 2 0 1 8
The aim for this Chardonnay is to work with some outstanding fruit to make a wine that is complex, textural and shows the vineyard in as natural a way as possible. This fruit comes from a small parcel from the Taylor vineyard, located in the Rapaura region of Marlborough.
The grapes are all hand-picked and then whole-cluster pressed. All the wine is then fermented with indigenous yeast in French oak barriques and sits on lees for fifteen months prior to bottling.
9 Terrace Road, PO Box 33, Renwick, Marlborough, New Zealand.
P: +64 3 572 8859