Summer with Waipara Hills – Wines from the Soul of the South

Welcome the Spirit of Summer with Waipara Hills – Wines from the Soul of the South

It’s the season for celebrating the beauty of Aotearoa – glorious days, starry nights and stylish entertaining – so embrace the spirit of summer with Waipara Hills, wines that encapsulate the spirit of summer and the true soul of the South.

The new 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Pinot Gris is defined by its pale straw colour and beautiful notes of ripe pear, quince paste, fresh hay and ginger – the ultimate way to delight your taste buds this summer. With a dry and structured palate that is also both rich and generous, the new 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Pinot Gris offers weight and texture on your palate, lifted with notes of wild flowers.

Full of character and personality, the new 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Riesling offers a refreshing drop, with stunning notes of fresh cut apple and green melon and a touch of honey and fresh ginger. With its pale yellow hue, the new 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Riesling is rich and mouth-filling on first sip, cut through by a beautiful crisp acidity that follows.

Waipara Hills Winemaker, Simon McGeorge, says this season produced some of the best Pinot Gris from the Waipara Valley.

“The Pinot Gris we produced this season is a standout, showing great weight and texture on the palate, rich aromatics of pear and melon, yet lifted with hay and wild flowers on the nose,” says McGeorge.

“The 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Riesling is also testament to a fantastic season, with its fresh and vibrant acidity, combined with generous and mouth-filling fruit flavour for an enduring finish.”

According to McGeorge, the vintage conditions were perfect for crafting the 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Pinot Gris and 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Riesling, with a bud break in late September early October, followed by a settled and warm spring without any frost setbacks.

“The plants enjoyed good growth. We went into an early flower set, the earliest on our records and also one of the best. The summer and ripening season were dry and cool and through the growing season we had 230 millimetres of rain – the hottest month being December with an average temperature of 18 degrees,” says McGeorge.

The 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Riesling also displays an IRF (International Riesling Foundation) Riesling Taste Profile on its label – designed to help consumers predict the taste in a particular bottle of Riesling.

Created by the IRF, the Riesling Taste Profile is then determined by the winery as to where the arrow should go, based on a set of technical guidelines combined with their own judgment from tasting. The 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Riesling sits between Medium Dry and Medium Sweet on the IRF Riesling Taste Profile.

The 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Pinot Gris and 2011 Waipara Hills Waipara Valley Riesling ($18.90-$21.90) and full range of Waipara Hills wines are distributed by Hancocks (free phone 0800 699 463) and available from specialty wine outlets, leading supermarkets nationwide and online at www.waiparahillswines.co.nz

About Waipara Hills:
Established in 2001, Waipara Hills wines have become famous for their intensity, character and complexity – a result of the innate contrasts in climate in New Zealand’s deep South. Known as the ‘soul of the south’, Waipara Hills wines have received more than 200 awards in less than 10 years – from the Air New Zealand Wine awards to the International Wine Challenge in the UK, the company’s achievements reflect the broad appeal of its wines.

Bio: Simon McGeorge – Winemaker, Waipara Hills:
After completing a degree in commerce and marketing, Simon studied winemaking at Lincoln University in Canterbury. He then spent several years travelling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres working harvest and following styles and winemaking techniques, until he was offered a fulltime position at De Loach Vineyards in the Russian River, California in 1999. After four seasons Simon travelled to France for his next harvest and made wine in the Loire.

Simon then travelled back to New Zealand to take on the role of Assistant Winemaker at Esk Valley Estate, owned by Villa Maria. In three short years he was promoted to Winemaker and worked with a wide range of varietals, using traditional and innovative winemaking methods.

In 2006 he was excited to be offered a role as winemaker at Waipara Hills, an opportunity to work in an emerging wine region with aromatic varieties such as Riesling and Pinot Gris, two of Simon’s favourites. Several years on, Simon has played an instrumental role in forging the direction of the Waipara Hills wine styles, seeking to reflect both the region that they come from and the people that work to create them.

ENDS

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