This wine was aged in 100% French oak barrels the majority of which were older than 5 years and approximately 25% were new. This has produced a complex yet subtle wine that has an intense, ripe nectarine, leesy aroma overlaying a creamy almond, vanilla character, rather than overt fruitiness. This is a full bodied and elegant wine, with a dry and crisp finish.
What the critics say...
Wine Spectator: 89 points(31/08/2008)
Fleshy and bright, with excellent intensity to lemon curd, coconut, pineapple and apricot flavors. Tangy lemon, sea salt and well-integrated toasty oak extend through the aftertaste. Drink now through 2009.
Pairing: Fish Stew, Omelets, Pasta, Soups and Creams.
All the wines are from the grapes produced in the family’s property, on the road of Rapaura, Marlborough. This means that we do enormous efforts in the vineyards to obtain the stable vines which constantly deliver the healthiest fruit, with the concentrated flavors of Marlborough. When we crushed... the grapes, we consolidate those flavors using the traditionals wine making process combined with the best modern technology. The vineyard of Staete Landt is designed to produce a single vineyard, handmade wines with complexity and the careful use of the variation of the clone, and of the terroir. We design carefully the vineyard around the styles of wines that desire to produce, not the reverse. It is in the vineyard where our more important work is found, so that the vines can be healthy, to deliver a mature fruit and obtain the different aromas and flavours of Marlborough. The productions are very low. The 1999 Marlborough environmental prize was granted to our vineyard because of our technic in wise practice of an intricate design in the irrigation based on the characteristics of the soil, grapes varieties and resources of scarce water. In other words, since an environmental view, it put in practice the design of the vineyard, showed to be an example for the progresses of future vineyards. We have divided the vineyard in 18 plots with private clones and separated them by different types of soils. It requires constant attention in the vineyard as the different types of varieties ripes earlier or later depending on the ground. To produce bunches of mature and healthy grapes with intense flavors, we pratice green harvest of the diverse varieties. This is controlled for the very final practical pruning. Each block or plot of the vineyard are worked for separated to handle efficiently the growth. The entire vineyard is planted in rows of 2,4 meters and the majority of the vines are separated by 1,8 meters.
