Riesling Bannockburn 2024

Felton Road, tasting note (feltonroad.com – produktside feltonroad.com, hentet 2026-10-19): 2024 Felton Road Riesling Bannockburn – område: Bannockburn (Central Otago); drue: Riesling; alkohol 10%. Producentens noter (engelsk): Tasting note: The nose opens with intense tropical fruit that entices and intrigues. Ripe stone fruit of peach and nectarine dominate the flavours that are fully integrated with the natural sweetness. This builds through the mid-palate, almost risking being too decadent, until the schist infused acidity tempers, providing focus and length. The very fine 2024 vintage has provided a detailed and classic rendition of this special style. Vineyard & viticulture: Felton Road farms four properties totaling 34 ha in the Bannockburn subregion of Central Otago. Blocks 2 and 4 are located on gravel fans within the Elms Vineyard with deep soils of angular schist gravels. Meticulous summer management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity. Shoot thinning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning and harvest are all carried out by hand to ensure optimum quality fruit. Cover crops are planted between rows to assist in vine balance and to improve soil health and general biodiversity. After a wet September, spring commenced with good soil moisture and bud burst occurred at the normal time of early October. Temperatures hovered around average with December being warm and dry, enabling a successful flowering and fruit set. The dry conditions prevailed throughout January and February limiting berry size and setting the scene for fruit with elevated phenolic material and complexity. Judicious use of irrigation was required to maintain sufficient vine health throughout this sustained dry period. Temperatures never spiked and hovered around average enabling a slow and steady path to maturity. A distinctive feature of March 2024 was the cool night temperatures preserving acidity, freshness and precision of fruit character. Riesling in Blocks 2 and 4 were harvested from 5-10 April, with the heavy soils of Block 1 requiring extra time to conclude the overall harvest on 19 April. Vinification: Riesling from Block 4 of The Elms vineyard was carefully hand-picked, whole bunch pressed, settled for 3-4 days before racking, then fermented with indigenous yeasts. The 3 week fermentation was stopped by chilling when the optimal balance was achieved between the acidity, alcohol and residual sugar (49g/L). Careful winemaking with minimal processing highlights the crisp natural acidity and the Riesling characters are delicately poised in the low alcohol of 10.0%.