About

 The 2021 growing season will go down as a classic. A warm and wet spring gave the new growth in the vineyard the perfect start. This was followed by settled summer weather and a long, warm and dry autumn. This “second summer” meant the fruit was able to hang long into the autumn under perfect Central Otago conditions. This led to pristine fruit that was plumb with intense fruit flavours.

The pristine Pinot Noir was handpicked on a stunning autumn Central Otago morning before the short trip through the Kawarau Gorge to our winery. Once at the winery the fruit was destemmed, and the skins left to soak with the juice for 2 hours. This short period has given the wine its beautiful, lite complexion. Once pressed the delicate juice was fermented at cool temperatures to lock in the bright summer fruit flavours. The slow, gentle ferment was then stopped at the perfect point of balance capturing the ripe stone fruits and fresh acidity.  

This year marks the second instalment of the Augustine Pinot Noir Rose. It was great to get the feedback from Nathan and Kelly on the inaugural release and build those into this wine. The main tweaks involved lower the alcohol a touch and making the colour a little lighter. I think we nailed both of those this year and the wine looks fantastic. The colour is a pale peach or as the French would say “onion skin”. We made sure to pick the fruit slightly earlier this year giving the wine less alcohol and increasing the freshness. The new label looks awesome, and I think we have delivered a Rose to match. As always, it’s been a fun wine to make along with Nathan and Kelly and we hope you have fun drinking it.