Jules Taylor Marlborough Pinot Gris 2024

Jules Taylor Marlborough Pinot Gris 2024"Gorgeously ripe and elegantly fragrant on the nose, showing Nashi Pear, rockmelon, Gala apple, and white floral aromas, followed by a beautifully weighted palate offering succulent fruit intensity with spicy nuances. It's splendidly textured and harmonious with bright acidity, finishing delectable and persistent. At its best: now to 2030" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jan 2025 "Ripe, vibrant, pure fruited and enticing flavours of green pears and red apple,

"Gorgeously ripe and elegantly fragrant on the nose, showing Nashi Pear, rockmelon, Gala apple, and white floral aromas, followed by a beautifully weighted palate offering succulent fruit intensity with spicy nuances. It's splendidly textured and harmonious with bright acidity, finishing delectable and persistent. At its best: now to 2030" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jan 2025

"Ripe, vibrant, pure fruited and enticing flavours of green pears and red apple, lemon and quince. There’s a vibrato and freshness as the wine touches the palate, super fine fruit tannins touch the palate carried along by acidity and alcohol. A light stony mineral quality adds some breadth and style. Youthful, fresh, balanced, well made and delicious with best drinking from 2025 through 2028" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Jan 2025

Pale straw yellow. Inviting aromas of rose petal and juicy pear are supported by lashings of ripe stone fruit, baked quince and a hint of spice. The palate is elegant and creamy, with concentrated flavours of pear and ginger, tropical and stone fruit, and a delicious textural creaminess from the wild fermentation. It is a charming drop, concluding in a juicy, fresh-tasting finish.

A strong El Nino weather pattern dominated in 2024, causing strong westerly winds and warm, very dry conditions down NZ’s east coast. Vine growth began later than previous years and a couple of very cold nights in early October caused a touch of frost damage in the Southern Valleys. Flowering was relatively poor, and it quickly became clear that the harvest would be much smaller than 2022 or 2023. Warm weather began in mid-December and continued right through to March, causing one of the shortest ripening periods on record. However clear, cold nights retained fruit acidity during ripening. Harvest was short and sharp. Our first pick was Pinot Gris on the 8th March and the last block of Sauvignon Blanc from the Upper Awatere was picked on 31st March. All the 2024 fruit was packed with flavour and absolutely no sign of disease due to the amazing growing conditions. It was an ideal vintage!

Around 53% of the fruit for this Pinot Gris came from the Meadowbank vineyard in the Taylor Pass sub-region, and another 27% from the Waihopai Valley, with the remainder coming from the Rapaura sub-region. The grapes were a mixture of the older 2/15 clone and newer 457 and 52B clones which have been producing beautiful little berries full of concentrated stonefruit and spice flavours. The parcel of 52B fruit was hand harvested, with the remainder picked by machine. In the winery the majority of the juice was pressed and settled in tank then racked for a slow, cool fermentation with selected yeast to preserve fruit characters and freshness. Jules retained higher levels of solids through the fermentation to enhance mouthfeel and texture. The hand harvested portion of grapes was whole bunch pressed to old barrels for a wild ferment with natural yeasts. This portion of wine also underwent  a full malolactic fermentation with some lees stirring. The components were blended in August and bottled in late October.

Food Pairing: This Pinot Gris is great with Thai or Vietnamese flavours - try pairing it with pork belly spring rolls or a traditional Vietnamese Pho . Alternatively try it with freshly caught scallops fried in butter with a touch of garlic and chilli.