Church Road Reserve Hawke's Bay Noble Sémillon 1999

Home > Our Wines > Wine Ranges > Church Road Reserve >

Church Road Reserve

Hawke's Bay Noble Sémillon 1999

Awards & Reviews

A single-vineyard wine made by hand picking individual bunches of botrytis affected fruit. This attention to detail results in a top quality 'Sauternes' style wine; lush and concentrated with masses of honeyed apricot fruit, layers of creamy oak and rich intensely sweet fruit flavours. A powerful wine that is fully ready for drinking (140 grammes/litre residual sugar).

Jane Skilton - Hospitality Magazine (31 May 2005)

Oak-matured sweet, white, dark coloured, well developed and rich in its honey and fruit-ripe tones. Fairly mature and very much ready to drink, a style that is different and will appeal to traditional Sauternes drinkers rather than those preferring the modern wave of overt botrytis.

Peter Saunders - F&B (March 2004)

Hawke's Bay dessert wine in the Sauternes/Barsac style, fully botrytised, mature and golden and rich, with apricot and marmalade aromas and flavours, good balance and a sweet, slightly honeyed finish. Stylish wine for now and the next several years.

Graeme Barrow - Northern Advocate (March 2004)

New Zealand Sémillon is not our greatest asset, but heavily botrytised and made in the style of Sauternes, it really shows class. Carefully selected and hand-picked grapes, basket pressed in the traditional manner and fermented in new oak. Wickedly sweet flavours of apricots and honey, with an underlying edge of Sémillon and spicy oak. The finish is clean and lingering with a delicious aftertaste.

Hugh Wood - Hamilton Press (Oct 2003)

This sweet wine is a true French Sauternes-style Noble Sémillon with a distinctive New Zealand signature.

Rich and intensely concentrated, it has been crafted from fully botrytised berries from our Korokipo Estate Vineyard.

Winemaker's Notes

print-friendly version (requires Acrobat)

Released: December 2003
Variety: 100% Sémillon
Region: 100% Hawke's Bay

Description

Colour: Rich yellow-gold of fully-botrytised dessert wine.

Aromas: Intensely concentrated bouquet of marmalade, honey and apricots.

Palate: Rich fruit and honey characters provide a lingering finish, balanced by firm acidity and well-integrated French oak.

Recommended Cellaring

This delicious Noble Sémillon is ready to drink now, but will reward careful cellaring for seven or more years.

Harvest

The very shy-bearing Sémillon crop was hand harvested in late May to mid-June 1999, in five separate passes.

Brix at harvest: 31-55°

Winemaking

Winemakers: Tony Prichard and Peter Hurlstone

Hand-pressed in a small oak basket press, the resulting juice was cold settled and racked before fermentation, in new French oak barriques. Fermentation was halted once the desired alcohol/sugar balance was achieved.

Aged in 100% new French oak barriques, for approximately 14 months.

The key to this wine lies in the strict observance of traditional French Sauternes vineyard practices and winemaking techniques. These consist of individual berry selection, hand-pressing in a small basket press and full barrel fermentation in new French oak, to optimise concentration, power, balance and complexity in the wine.

Analysis

Alcohol: 13.5% by volume
Total acidity: 10.3 g/L as tartaric

Vintages

1997, 1999, 2002*

* currently available vintage(s)

Top of page

Our Wines

Awards

Functions & Weddings

Winery Experience

How To Find Us

Contact Us

Church Road Winery