Global accolade for North Canterbury wine from ‘million dollar nose’

Greystone Wine’s 2017 Vineyard Ferment Pinot Noir is being trumpeted as one of this year’s Top 100 Wine Discoveries by world-leading wine authority, Robert Parker.

It is one of only two New Zealand wines to make the list.

Greystone General Manager, Nik Mavromatis says being in the Top 100 Wine Discoveries is an endorsement money can’t buy.

“We pioneered a new technique to make our Vineyard Ferment Pinot Noir and knew we were onto something pretty special – but to have it recognised by Robert Parker’s team at Wine Advocate is phenomenal. This could be huge for us.”

American Robert Parker is one of the world’s most influential wine critics whose nose and palate are insured for $1 million. He pioneered the 100-point scoring model used to rate wines.

Greystone’s 2017 Vineyard Ferment Pinot Noir scored 93 points making it an ‘outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character’.

Greystone winemaker Dom Maxwell says the score is brilliant and great recognition of an epic experiment.

“Vineyard Ferment is about as close as you will get to nature making wine. We pick the fruit and de-stem it in the vineyard, where it is put into open vats and the environment’s natural yeasts turn the fruit into wine. Nothing else but wild native yeasts!”

“Not only is every vintage different, every vat can vary because it’s affected by the environment where it sits in the vineyard. It’s a sensational wine with red fruit characters and a lovely, long, lingering finish. We don’t add anything at all during fermentation and by isolating the wine outside we keep its own specific profile. We don’t use any new oak barrels or anything else – this wine tastes strictly of this place in the world.”

Nik Mavromatis says the Vineyard Ferment is a completely different wine that has already proven incredibly popular with buyers around the world from Sweden to China.

“This is a real unique story around a completely different wine. Since we started producing it in 2016 we’ve regularly sold out within hours and struggled to keep up with demand. We’re now producing much more but with this latest endorsement we expect to sell out. This year it’s a lot trickier telling the story internationally due to travel restrictions so maybe New Zealanders will get a chance to try it.”

Tasting notes from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate say the 2017 Vineyard Ferment Pinot Noir is ‘more earthy and herbal than what consumers might expect from New Zealand Pinot Noir but it's complex, with savoury notes and underpinnings of mixed red and black fruits. Most notably, this medium-bodied wine's texture has a lovely, rich-silky feel and terrific length’.

The other wine to make the list was Bish’s Heartwood Chardonnay, where winemaker Tony Bish uses innovative egg shaped wooden fermenters.

“There is a great story to tell of our unique environment in New Zealand and our Vineyard Ferment wine is a form of liquid geography. There is even a Phd study being worked on by a Lincoln University student right now DNA sequencing the indigenous yeasts in this wine,” says Nik.

For more information contact...

Jo Scott
021 883 123
jo@greatpr.co.nz