KEW 2006 Gewürztraminer

Description:

The first harvest from young vines produced fabulous ripe, clean fruit, showing intense spicy characters classic of Gewurztraminer. The bouquet is complex with lifted floral aromas of jasmine and honeysuckle, intermingled with notes of cardamom and ginger. On the palate, this wine is rich and textural with flavours of lychee and ginger, finishing with hints of clove and honey. An extremely enticing wine, which will continue to tease the tastebuds with every glass.

Viticulture:

The first commercial crop from three year old vines trained as two cane VSP system. Two metre wide rows, with two metre spacing between vines. This Gewürztraminer is clone 457, which has shown excellent varietal expression and complexity when grown in the Patutahi Plateau. Predominant soil type is clay loam with pumice sub layers.

Hand harvested on 14 March 2006 with the following analyses:

Brix: 23.5
pH: 3.61
TA: 5.625g/L

Winemaking:

The fruit was crushed and destemmed directly after harvest and pressed gently and slowly to retain all delicate flavours and characters of this variety. The final press fractions were fined with fresh skim milk at the press to ensure a balanced structure in the final wine. After 24 hours of cool settling, the juice was racked retaining a small amount of inherent nitrogen for yeast support
and inoculated with an aromatic yeast. Cool fermentation followed to ensure maximum expression of aromas and flavours in the final wine.

Analyses at bottling:

pH: 3.35
TA: 4.875g/L
Alc: 12.7%
RS: 18 g/L