Astrolabe Comelybank Vineyard Pinot Rosé 2021

This is a wine made by Waghorn Family from the fruit harvested from Comelybank Vineyard, of Hammond family in Wairau.

The vineyard has well drained stony alluvium soils and some imperfectly drained loams from the undissected older terraces. Vines use standard trellis withpruning to two canes and vertical shoot positioning. Vines are trimmed closely, well tucked, and leaf plucking is minimal. Cluster thinning is used to ensure light crops, evenly ripened and balanced fruit.

The vintage of 2021 is a mix of 85% Pinot Noir and 15% Pinot Gris. The fruits were harvest from 11th March throughout until 23rd March.
The Pinot Noir was machine harvested and allowed a short period of skin contact. The free-run juice was drawn off, settled briefly and fermented with light solids at cool temperature. The Pinot Gris was hand-picked and whole cluster pressed, and clear juice was combined with the Pinot Noir ferment. Bottled 23rd June, 2021.

The addition of hand harvested Pinot Gris gifts the wines extra floral notes and some stonefruit aroma. This overall makes the wine more aromatic and complex on the nose. This wine is only made in the right vintages.