Kelly Washington Marlborough Pinot Blanc 2018

Kelly Washington Marlborough Pinot Blanc 2018Savoury notes Autumnal fruit White florals Light buttery notes "From variety that is highly regarded in Italy and California, this organic wine was hand picked and barrel aged. Bright yellow green, it is fragrant and softly mouthfilling with good complexity and slightly buttery flavours" Michael Cooper, Mar 2020 "Tamra Kelly Washington has a huge profile in New Zealand winemaking circles. While she's best know for overseeing the winemaking at Seresin,

• Savoury notes
• Autumnal fruit
• White florals
• Light buttery notes

"From variety that is highly regarded in Italy and California, this organic wine was hand picked and barrel-aged. Bright yellow-green, it is fragrant and softly mouthfilling with good complexity and slightly buttery flavours" Michael Cooper, Mar 2020

"Tamra Kelly-Washington has a huge profile in New Zealand winemaking circles. While she's best know for overseeing the winemaking at Seresin, her experience has been global. Now, Kelly Washington is a joint project with her husband Simon Kelly, and their wines shone at the Metro tasting, with all three submitted wines comfortably making the cut. This was the top-scorer of the family - complex, pretolly, oaky, with a good palate weight, a touch of sweetness and a long finish" Metro Top 50 Wines 2020

Intensely golden hued. Hugely savoury and showing notes of ripe autumnal fruits and white flowers. Not your usual new world Pinot Blanc, the wine is powerful and rich, showing the minimal handling, natural yeast and high level of lees in fermentation and aging. It is framed by fine boned acidity and a nice low pH. Delicious!

Having had the first vintage under their belt, it was wonderful to commence Vintage 2018 having had some experience with the plots and the wines that have translated. Although the winemkers did not experience the challenging nature of cool weather over the ripening period in 2018, they did face another difficult vintage with some challenging intermittent rain events, so it was crucial to have a great deal of vigilance and care with picking decisions, and sorting of the fruit. Only the best bunches were picked and made it to be pressed. Fortunately the Pinot Blanc was very low yielding naturally which enabled an early pick with good Brix and flavour ripeness.

At Kelly Washington they seek the most unique and diverse parcels of high quality fruit, which they translate into their elegant and honest wines. Working with such exceptional fruit, their aim is to is to showcase and explore sub regionality of New Zealand's wine growing regions, but moreover making wines of provenance. In many cases, these special sites are farmed organically and bio-dynamically. Therefore it is important for them to take these philosophies into the winery and beyond.