This pack contains 1 bottle each of the following wines…

2023 Tolone

Riesling & Chardonnay from the Tolone block on our property. As with the Nikau Pinot the aim here is to do as little as possible and let the fruit and site shine with the least amount of manipulation. There were 24 hours of skin contact with a very light maceration. 

The wine seems very refined. It is a dainty 10% alcohol, but you wouldn’t know it, It has incredible structure and presence. 

It is an elegant and haunting thing of beauty (I don’t say such things about my own wines lightly). It has so much vitality and freshness with a beatiful floral lift. It is a very individual wine in it’s own right. 

There is nothing added to the wine at any stage of the process (including oak). It is a stunningly pure expression of site place and time. These are very special wines to me and are the culmination of a lot of hard and exacting work in the vineyards over the last 7 years.

Only 155 bottles produced

2023 Nikau Granite

This year the ‘Granite’ cuvée is comprised of Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc from our Tonimbuk site.

47 year old vines on coarse, weathered granite soils always give the wines from this site a lean and very mineral driven nature. They always show an abundance of energy with such delicate and precise structure. 

Co-Fermentation took place in stainless steel with whole bunch skin-contact for 48 hours. The wine was then pressed back into a single ceramic egg where it sat undisturbed for 14 months elevage. It was then bottled (without racking) directly from the vessel.

This is a delicately orange wine with a refined and elegant nature to it. It has more tannin than the 2022, largely due to the Pinot Gris/Grigio element. 

The time in tank on gross lees has given yet another layer of fine complexity to the wine. As always..Wild ferment, No pumps, No additions, No oak. As pure a representation of site, place and time possible. 

Bottled by gravity, Sealed with premium natural cork and beeswax 

375 Bottles produced

2023 Nikau Rosé (Pinot Noir)

 In 2021 we made our first rosé (I use the term loosely) from the Nikau Pinot vineyard. I’ve long had a love for light pink wines and have made many under the Momento Mori label. 

Having the chance to make this style from the same fruit each season has been educational and a lot of fun. We dedicated the 11 short (30m) rows on the west side of the block to make this wine from each year. The goal being to show the nuance and character of the site, and to hopefully portray the varietal complexities of the fruit, not the easiest thing to do with rosé. 

The west rows get the sunshine last and lose the sunlight first so the fruit always shows a slightly higher and fresher acidity from the other side of the same block. The soils are the same of course and comparing the Rosé and the Home Block Pinot Noir you can really see the site specific characters in both. 

The fruit was picked early morning while still fresh and cool and was then immediately hand sorted and hand destemmed into an open tub. It then rested overnight in our cool room until the next morning when it was pulled out and pressed so the cool juice could begin a slow ferment. 

Elevage was in a small 300L stainless steel tank for 10 months after which it was bottled by hand off of full solids. It has since had more than 18 months resting in bottle and is a very resolved wine. 

It is a beautiful translucent pink in colour and has a wildly complex nose. It has so many similarities with the Pinot, it’s quite serious really with great structure and layer upon layer of complexity. 

180 Bottles produced