The 2022-23 growing season was dominated by strong La Ninā weather conditions: average to below average summer temperatures and average to above average rainfall. Flowering was cooler, allowing for modest crops and small amounts of rain fell regularly throughout the growing season. Thankfully, come late February the weather turned, and we had very settled weather right through later summer and into our autumn harvest months of March and April. These months were cooler than normal allowing for a long, slow ripening period – essential for our aromatic wine styles. Fruit was harvested in excellent condition, with fantastic flavours along with great retention of natural acidity. Our Sauvignon Blancs from the 2023 vintage look especially strong – the best of the last few years. The wines have a riper profile - loads of passionfruit flavour as well as underlying citrus and crushed herb characters. Pinot Gris also looks outstanding this year.
Awards & Accolades Update
The 2023 show season is just getting underway. We're excited to present our new vintage wines and will keep you posted with our results.
In the meantime, we're pleased with early results with Sam Kim of Wine Orbit scoring our 2023 Estate Sauvignon Blanc 93 points and awarding it a gold medal. Our 2023 Bonnie Rose received the same score but with Mount Riley covered in snow at the time of writing we're looking forward to warmer weather and longer days to enjoy this one!
Click on the relevant wine in the “our wines” section of our website then expand the “awards” option for full details of the results for each of our current vintage wines.
The Alice Block
.Mount Riley has purchased a block of fam land up the Wairau Valley which we are planting in vines in the spring of 2023. We don't currently source fruit from up the Wairau Valley so the block will add another dimension of complexity to our Sauvignon Blanc blend. The area is also of great sentimental value as John's Mum Alice grew up on a farm named "the Bounds" which is very close to this new site.
