Nga Waka Lease Block 2021

Ageing; 16 Months in French oak with 30% in new oak

Structure; Medium-bodied.

Food pairing ideas; Duck and roasted game birds, grilled game, truffle dishes and earthy vegeterian based dishes.

Description; Deep purple in colour, with rich, vibrant dark cherries, plum and vanilla on the nose with spice, cedar and nutty oak to follow with a balanced, long lasting finish.

This is a deep coloured, concentrated, single vineyard red, from vines planted in 1999, matured in French oak barriques for over 16 months, was bottled unfined and unfiltered. Wonderful to drink now but will age beautifully if cellared.

Producer Profile; Roger Parkinson of Nga Waka in Martinborough is a proponent of vine age having an influence on the expression of a wine. Establishing his vineyards in 1988, he noted that his 15 y.o. ‘Home Block’ Chardonnay vines began producing wines with greater structural and mineral characters over varietal expression. This resulted in the separate single vineyard ‘Home Block’ bottling of Chardonnay. Roger has operated his aunt and uncle’s 0.8 ha of Pinot Noir vines on Huangarua Road under a lease arrangement since it was planted in 1999. He has noticed a similar change in the Pinot Noir wine from this site as with the Chardonnay from the ‘Home Block’, showing greater vineyard site expression. This has led to the long-awaited creation of a single vineyard Pinot Noir wine to complement the Chardonnay, this being called the ‘Lease Block’ Pinot Noir. The first release appropriately comes from the outstanding 2013 vintage. And it keeps geting better year after year, with the 2020 their best so far.