Viticulture and Winemaking

The 2019 vintage will be remembered as one of the warmest on record, with harvest starting roughly 10 days earlier than the long term average. With healthy vines and strong canopies, the warm weather did not impact the harvest quality, simply an unprecedent early season. Sugar levels accumulated quickly in the warm weather and our parcels ripened at different times, so “picking on flavour was key” said winemaker Tim Adams.

Like many of the Marlborough producers, poor flowering in general around the valley resulted in a lower crop, in most cases. Fortunately, Toi Toi’s regional diversity and well timed harvest minimised the impact and resulted in exceptional flavour of fruit. We picked the grapes when the flavours were at optimum, to ensure we preserved the fruit flavours in the wine. We used a select de-stemmer harvester to softly handle the fruit.

Once pressed off skins, the juice was then fermented at low temperatures in stainless steel tanks with selected yeast strains to preserve the inherent delicate fruit flavours. Following fermentation, the wine was aged on light yeast lees to increase palate weight and complexity before it was bottled for enjoyment.