Gibbston Valley - Central Otago

Heres a photo of where our Central Otago Pinot Noir comes from. Its the Gibbston Valley area. The climate is often described as the only area of New Zealand with a Continental type climate as opposed to the NZ norm which is a Maritime climate. Nowhere in NZ is too far from the sea but this is about as far as it get and the area is surrounded by mountains.

The typical seasonal weather pattern here is for a long season with hot summer temperatures and frost risks at the start and finish of the season. Gibbston its traditionally the coolest of the Central Otago sub-regions where harvesting can be as much as 3 or even 4 weeks after hotter areas like Bannockburn. As a result of the long season the grapes easily attain high levels of sugar ripeness together with well structured tannins and reasonable levels of acidity.

The resultant wines are often darkly coloured with highly perfumed aromas and intense fruit flavours married with a good tannin and acid structure. It is undoubtedly one of the more beautiful wine regions in the world and has attracted a large amount of foreign investment on the back of the growth of NZ Pinot Noir internationally.

In this photo our vineyards are on the gentle slopes here which flow down to the main Queenstown-Cromwell highway. On the other side of the road you can make out the Peregrine Winery on the left of the photo.