Craggy Range Vineyards Ltd Descriptions

Description 1 of 1

t is a philosophy like no other. To select and source the very best vineyards in the country, plant them with only the vines that are perfectly suited to that terroir. Bottle them all as single estate wines. This simple philosophy, to make wines that speak more of where they come from than any other, is what drives their entire systems of farming and winemaking. Craggy Range has the opportunity to craft a wine business exactly the way it wants to, making the most of 150 years of pioneering winemaking in New Zealand. To some New Zealand means cool climate winegrowing, but in reality it is much more diverse. In the Gimblett Gravels Winegrowing District in Hawkes Bay, Craggy Range has 100 hectares that were destined to be that quarry. These stony soils located on the same latitude as Madrid, away from the cooling breeze of the South Pacific, create a warm environment, the only part of the country that is as warm and dry as the great French regions of Bordeaux and Hermitage. Not surprisingly it is here they grow Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. And in the middle latitudes, around 40, are what Craggy Range calls the famous “warm-cool” regions of Martinborough, Marlborough, and Nelson. In Martinborough Craggy Range has a spectacular vineyard on Te Muna Road, the home to the majority of its Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc vines, each planted on their own special type of different rocky soil. In the South Island, great farmers in Marlborough and Nelson provide Craggy Range with the best Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling these regions can produce. The “genuinely cool” climate jewel of New Zealand is the Bannockburn region of Central Otago where Craggy Range has a small Pinot Noir parcel that will rival in quality the wines from their Te Muna Road Vineyard in Martinborough. In the Waitaki Valley Craggy Range is pioneering a new cool climate region with plantings of Pinot Gris in limestone rich alluvial soils. – Description from fersnooth

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