Auntsfield

Auntsfield is the Marlborough's first and oldest winery and vineyard. This winery boasts a proud history dating back 165 years. Auntsfield Estate is nestled in the lower slopes of the southern hills of Marlborough's Wairau Valley and covers 100 hectares, planted to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The vineyard planting has taken full advantage of the diverse soils and meso-climates by separating the land into numerous distinctive blocks or micro-vineyards. Each of these blocks has been planted with a carefully selected clone for each variety. Proprietors Luc and Ben Cowley are now in charge of viticulture and winemaking respectively. Already winners of numerous awards, Aunstfield is establishing an international reputaion for producing outstanding wines.
 

 

Pinot Noir

This wine was made with a minimalist philosophy, designed to enable the characteristics of the grapes and the vineyard to be revealed. The fruit was hand-harvested, hand-sorted, gently destemmed and gravity-fed to tank. Fermented occurred with a combination of ambient and some cultured indigenous yeast strains, careful hand plunging was utilized to gently extract flavors, color and tannins over the course of nearly two weeks. The wine was pressed to French barriques with roughly 20% being new and the remainder between 2-6-years-old. The wine aged gracefully for 10 months before the blend was made and the wine settled in tanks. It was bottled without fining or filtration and just a small sulfur addition.

 

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Sauvignon Blanc

The fruit was hand-harvested and fermented at cool temperatures with a house cultured native yeast in stainless-steel tanks was utilized to retain the fresh varietal aromatics. This was balanced by a portion of the fruit subjected to traditional winemaking practices: whole bunch pressed and fermented in seasoned oak barrels, adding texture and length to the wine.  The wine aged on its gross lees for five months and was racked to tank to settle naturally.  It was bottled without fining and with a coarse filtration and small sulfur addition.

 

This wine was made with a minimalist philosophy, designed to enable the characteristics of the grapes and the vineyard to be revealed. The fruit was hand-harvested, hand-sorted, gently destemmed and gravity-fed to tank. Fermented with a combination of indigenous and cultured yeasts, careful hand plunging was utilised to gently extract flavours and tannins from the skins. Maturation occurred in French oak barriques for approximately 10 months. The 2013 season was characterised by naturally low yields and warm settled weather with very little rainfall. Autumn produced cool and settled conditions which were some of the best seen in many years. This ripened small berried Pinot Noir with near perfect small to medium sized bunches.

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Price: (12 pack) Fl $280