Blank Canvas Marlborough Grüner Veltliner 2017

Blank Canvas is a fine wine studio producer, operated by the family of Matt Thomson and Sophie Parker-Thomson MW. Sophie is the 15th Master of Wine in New Zealand. All the wines that they produce came from single vineyards, mainly from Marlborough, but occasionally some also came from Central Otago and Hawke’s Bay.

Grüner Veltliner is known as the national white grape variety of Austria, grown widely throughout Niederösterreich (lower Austria). It makes white wines style from lean body, simple drink, to some very complex, near full body oak aged wines like Smaragd in Wachau DAC. Overall, the variety expresses distinctive white pepper, bell pepper and lanolin like notes. Quality-wise, the variety has seen success in both continental and maritime climate, usually performs better in cooler regions.

The fruit of this wine came from a single vineyard in the Rapaura subregion belonging to grower and long-term friends Malcolm and Jill Adams. Berekah Estate has two hectares of Grüner Veltliner planted with a mixture of the two clones available in New Zealand. It was a Matt’s suggestion that Malcolm took the lunge to plant the new-fangled variety and with now six vintages under its belt it is performing very well on the free-draining, young alluvial and loam soils. The vines are VSP trained and cane-pruned.

The grapes were harvested by hand during the cool early morning near the end of the Marlborough harvest. Quick transport to the winery saw the grapes being de-stemmed, crushed and ressed in a gentle pneumatic press to avoid skin-contact and the extraction of harsh phelonics. 60% of the clear free run juice was run to French oak puncheons (20% new oak) to ferment, while the balance was placed in tank to ferment at cool temperatures. Once fermentation was complete it was racked and matured on fine lees for 10 months in tank and barrel. It was gently filtered and bottled on the 10th March 2016.

Score: 95/100, by Bob Campbell MW, who commented, :”Weighty, richly-textured grüner that was fermented in oak puncheons and aged on the lees for 10 months. Mandarin, orange zest, root ginger and nutty lees. One of the best local examples I’ve tasted.” (16th July 2018)