Winery & Vintage Info
The Stoneleigh range consists of distinctive, elegant, fruit forward Marlborough wine that reflect the unique terroir of our stone-studded vineyards. Started by nature, our philosophy of minimum intervention in the winery ensures that the vibrant flavours of Stoneleigh are captured in each and every bottle.
The unique terroir, where the Stoneleigh vineyards lie, defines the wine’s unique qualities. Located on the northern side of the Wairau valley near Marlborough’s main river, the Wairau. The vines are located on deep, infertile gravel beds covered in smooth ‘sunstones’. The soils are characterised as young soils, based on river silts and stones. They tend to be low in nutrients and have poor water-holding capacity. A key feature is these sunstones and the unique stony riverbed soil structure, that are renowned for delivering Stoneleigh wines their quality
and flavour.
The main clones are Mass selected Sauvignon Blanc on SO4, 101-14, Schwarzmann and Raparia rootstocks. The fruit for this wine comes from our main Stoneleigh Vineyard on Rapaura Road and our Kaituna Vineyard. Vine Age: 15- 36 years old. Pruning Regime: VSP with 2, 3 and 4 canes.
The season began with good soil moisture reserves. A late spring cold snap followed by a four-day long rainfall event restricted the crop potential of early flowering varieties. The weather pattern swung to hot and dry to finish December, and lead into January and February. This hot dry weather held the canopy growth in check leading into harvest. Irrigation systems were in well justified from late December onwards this season. March and April rainfall was in line with Long Term Average but arrived in short sharp events. This prevented disease from dictating harvest priorities and fruit quality was optimised.
The fruit was harvested at peak intensity ensuring both fresh and ripe fruit properties. With minimal winemaking intervention this wine expresses its own unique characterises inherit to the terroir where this fruit is grown.
Overall, the growing season was excellent, providing beautiful and pristine fruit which has resulted in delicious aromas and flavours captured within the wines.
The grapes harvested for this wine were crushed and gently bag pressed off to achieve fresh, elegant juice. The juice was then promptly clarified to fermentation tank where is then fermented slowly at cool temperatures to retain the very distinctive regional and varietal characters of Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough. After fermentation was complete each tank was evaluated and blended to make this Classic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
