2024 Little Dreamer - Sauvignon
My first major job in the wine industry was for a large corporate. I mentioned to the winemakers how it would be interesting to try some skin contact and barrel fermentation on our Sauvignon blanc. I was laughed out of the room.
As a junior winemaker I felt a little despondent, but I’ve always lent towards the creative, artistic side of wine, constantly dreaming about style and texture.
So, I held onto these thoughts and ideas, morphing them with experience and time.
Coming back to Te Matau a Māui gave me the opportunity to work with New Zealand Sauvignon again, so I had to play around with these techniques to make a complex yet pure wine.
Green apple, chamomile, pink grapefruit and lime zest are followed by flint and mineral like flavours. A pure, crystalline and textural palate, the barrel ferment has added great complexity and length. This wine is dry and crisp with a crunchy, popping acid line.
Only 1536 bottles produced.
My first major job in the wine industry was for a large corporate. I mentioned to the winemakers how it would be interesting to try some skin contact and barrel fermentation on our Sauvignon blanc. I was laughed out of the room.
As a junior winemaker I felt a little despondent, but I’ve always lent towards the creative, artistic side of wine, constantly dreaming about style and texture.
So, I held onto these thoughts and ideas, morphing them with experience and time.
Coming back to Te Matau a Māui gave me the opportunity to work with New Zealand Sauvignon again, so I had to play around with these techniques to make a complex yet pure wine.
Green apple, chamomile, pink grapefruit and lime zest are followed by flint and mineral like flavours. A pure, crystalline and textural palate, the barrel ferment has added great complexity and length. This wine is dry and crisp with a crunchy, popping acid line.
Only 1536 bottles produced.
My first major job in the wine industry was for a large corporate. I mentioned to the winemakers how it would be interesting to try some skin contact and barrel fermentation on our Sauvignon blanc. I was laughed out of the room.
As a junior winemaker I felt a little despondent, but I’ve always lent towards the creative, artistic side of wine, constantly dreaming about style and texture.
So, I held onto these thoughts and ideas, morphing them with experience and time.
Coming back to Te Matau a Māui gave me the opportunity to work with New Zealand Sauvignon again, so I had to play around with these techniques to make a complex yet pure wine.
Green apple, chamomile, pink grapefruit and lime zest are followed by flint and mineral like flavours. A pure, crystalline and textural palate, the barrel ferment has added great complexity and length. This wine is dry and crisp with a crunchy, popping acid line.
Only 1536 bottles produced.
Details
Raukawa
The organically managed Geenty’s vineyard sits at approximately 150m above sea level in the limestone rich Raukawa hills to the south of the Heretaunga plains.
Season
Two cool seasons prior to 2024, coupled with a reasonably wet and cold spring of 2023 led to low bunch numbers and a long flowering period. Small, open bunches and low yields were the result, which isn’t a great thing for the wallet but is amazing for quality.
The rest of the 2024 season was near perfect, with bright, warm days and cool nights producing amazingly balanced and vibrant fruit characters while holding on to brilliant texture and acidity.
Winemaking
Sauvignon – 100%
Fruit was harvested into bins in the cool of the morning and immediately destemmed. 90% of the fruit stayed here for 18 hours to develop texture and phenolic from the skin contact, before being pressed off to tank for settling
The following day, the juice was racked directly to three old French oak puncheons (500L). Wild fermentation kicked off and progressed at warm temperatures for approximately 14 days.
10% of the remaining fruit was fermented on skins for 18 days and used for topping.
For the next six weeks lees stirring was conducted every week to develop mid palate weight and texture. It was then allowed to mature and settle at low temperatures for the next 2 months.
The barrels were then racked and blended to finish ageing in tank together. Minimal sulphur was added a month before bottling.
Alc - 12.0%
Green apple, chamomile, pink grapefruit and lime zest are followed by flint and mineral like flavours.
A pure, crystalline and textural palate, the barrel ferment has added great complexity and length.
This wine is dry and crisp with a crunchy, popping acid line.