Kim Crawford Wines

Wine Styles

The winemaking philosophy at Kim Crawford Wines is quite uncluttered, just like the winemaker, who sees himself as the "Guardian of the Vineyard", transferring, guiding and maximising the flavour from the vineyard to the bottle through the winemaking process.

The aim has always been straightforward: to make wine that is accessible, varietally expressive, fruit driven and generous. Viticulture takes a very prominent place as the defining moment in winemaking is that moment when the grape is picked.

Regional Blends (affectionately known as "the Spot")

These wines are blends from various vineyards in a specific wine-growing region, from Gisborne to Waipara. With these wines, we aim for emphatic varietal expression: the moment it is presented to the nose, clear varietal flavours must be upfront. Generosity on palate is important to us: flavours that "come to you", sometimes elusive and shy, always honest and filling all corners of the palate. We make wine to drink now and in 10 years time – they have to be accessible to all.

We make Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot, we love Riesling and dabble in Arneis, the Pinots (Gris and Noir) are our passion. Below is a brief summary of the wine styles of our most popular and well-distributed wines.

Sauvignon Blanc

Grapes from all over the Marlborough Region are used in this (our largest) blend where vineyards are selected by flavour profile for desired outcome. We tend towards the more herbaceous end of the flavour profile, ensuring Marlborough's typicity is retained.

Fruit is night harvested, when the temperatures are down. Picking at about 8° C means less oxidation takes place, making it easier to manage in the winery. Additionally and importantly, less energy is used in processing as no must chilling is required. After that, we tinker as little as possible, letting the vine and the flavour speak, gently guiding it through the course of the winemaking process.

Style wise, we are looking for upfront herbaceous aromas, backed by ripe fruit flavours of melon, passionfruit and crisp acidity.

Unoaked Chardonnay

This is the wine that started the company, before Sauvignon Blanc became famous!

Exposure of the bunches to sunlight is imperative to our style, which is ripe and forward. Canopy management reflects the desired flavour profile. Clone selection is important in this style as we seek intense stone fruit and nashi pear flavours, coupled with powerful and strong citrus/pink grapefruit characters. Secondary malolactic fermentation gives nuttiness and generous mouth feel.

We have found that it is essential to use only premium grade fruit for this wine as there is nothing to hide behind (oak), just the delicate flavours of Chardonnay.

Stylistically, we are looking for a wine that expresses the natural Chardonnay fruit characters, being stonefruit and pineapple. The wine undergoes full malolactic fermentation to add roundness and fullness to the wine as well as complexing hazelnut aromas and flavour. We aim for a full-bodied Chardonnay without the encumbrance of oak.

Riesling

The winemaker's favourite varietal.

Grape growing is similar to Chardonnay in that exposure of the fruit is paramount to the style and Scott Henry trellising system is utilised. We tend to grow the Riesling in the cooler regions of Marlborough and in the Waipara region.

A touch of residual sugar is important in this style to balance the acid and the fruit, it is subtle and sits behind the clean citrus flavours that have been the hallmark of this much awarded wine.

The wine benefits from bottle age, but can be drunk soon after bottling, delivering fresh, zingy citrus.

Stylistically we look for citrus flavours – lime and lemon sherbet and soft touches of pear.

Pinot Gris

In this wine, we want tropical varietal aromas (classic Packham pear) and good palate weight which is essential in good Pinot Gris. This is achieved by managing the canopy by trellising a portion of the vines for shading, capturing the more herbaceous flavours, and full sun exposure, giving tropical flavours and fruit weight.

Pinot Gris has very delicate varietal aromas, so we try to express this without using too much oak or malolactic to overpower the wine. Delicate Packham pear, melon and almond characters are strived for in the palate, we use a touch of malolactic and barrel ferment to add weight and complexity. Although technically in the dry range, a small amount of residual sugar gives the appearance of sweetness without being cloying.

Stylistically, KCW tends toward the Alsatian style, aiming to achieve the aromatics of lychee, mango and spice with weight in the palate, with a linearity gifted to us by cool climate acid balance.

Pansy! Rosé

A culmination of two winemaking requirements, 'Pansy!' is a seriously made fun wine.

There was a desire to make a quality Rosé for summer drinking within the portfolio. With New Zealand's cool climate there is often the need to intensify colour and flavour in our Bordeaux red varieties. To do this ideally, one "bleeds" up to 25% of the juice from the reds before fermentation. This ensures we have a light fruit driven style of Rosé.

The base for our Rose is Merlot, and vintage depending, supported by a very small percentage Cabernet Franc and/or Malbec for beautiful, floral touches on the nose.

Stylistically, we are looking for a light ruby red colour. A berry fruit and sherbet nose with ripe fruit flavours, and balance between residual sweetness, acidity and phenolics, with some structure. Almost a light red wine.

Pinot Noir

With this variety, a balance between exposure and shading is the key (as with the Pinot Gris) to get a balance between aromatics and weight. As most of the vines are young, we tend to be still on two cane VSP, and we leaf pluck to the desired level of exposure. As the vineyards mature, we will look more at the exposure ratios within the respective vineyards.

Harvest is again on flavour where we are looking at ripe dark cherry/raspberry flavours. We are usually finding this at 25 Brix plus in most of the blocks, 14-14.5% alcohol, which is much higher than we like in our blends. To overcome this, we tend to ferment in open top ferment tanks to allow evaporation of alcohol as well as pressing when the grapes are still warm. The tanks are hand plunged to break cap up, and to extract colour and flavour out of skins. It also allows the seeds to settle at the bottom.

A small portion of the wine goes through malolactic fermentation for mouth feel, the balance is matured on oak for five to seven months before blending.

We use primarily the new Dijon clones and like 115, 777 and 667 for colour, good tannin and the true Pinot Noir characters of strong berries and violets. In this wine from Marlborough, we look for ripe, bright, juicy black cherry, backed by the slightest touch of smoky flavours.

Small Parcels (Reserve Tier)

Small Parcel wines are our flagship wines and are devoted to delivering the very best expression of Kim Crawford Wines in New Zealand.

Quality of the wine and expression on the palate are our only parameters. We do not necessarily seek varietal correctness and normality. We look for a remarkable expression on the palate of that vintage.

We aim to achieve the best possible flavour balance while accepting and welcoming the variety from different vineyards and parcels of fruit. It is those subtle differences that help us create wine with such integrity

The very nature of "Small Parcels" means literally that small volumes are produced. For instance, the same Sauvignon Blanc will not be poured in Auckland and Adelaide, or in London and Los Angeles.

"Spitfire" Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

Spitfire is the pinnacle Sauvignon Blanc for KCW. It represents quality and excellence in every aspect of the viticulture and winemaking process.

Fruit for this wine is selected from the various vineyard blocks, depending on quality and flavour expression. Because the winery is set up to batch process fruit (vineyards ferment individually in small stainless steel tanks), we are able to select which fruit makes it into the "Spitfire", blending to desired expression on the palate.

Quality is the only parameter used to grade grapes for this wine, so volume is always limited. We have three or four sites throughout the Marlborough region which are considered to be a level above the rest. "Spitfire" can come from a blend of vineyards or a single vineyard depending on the season.

We aim for a wine that shows the full Sauvignon flavour spectrum from fresh cut grasses and herbs through to generous amounts of tropical fruit on the palate. We look for the wine to be more elegant and to show constraint. The outstanding features we seek are balance and palate weight. It makes for an extraordinary Sauvignon, perhaps not the explosion and zing as found in our Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, but an elegant, complex, well balanced wine that improves with bottle age, allowing us to explore yet to be discovered flavour of this much coveted Marlborough varietal.

"Flowers" Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

"Flowers" was the nickname of Brendon Flowerday who was tragically killed on one of our supplying vineyards. This wine is specially blended by the team at Kim Crawford Wines to remember this young mans spirit. This wine is a firm Kiwi favourite in the restaurant trade, and is spreading its wings.

Post ferment the batches are tasted tank by tank to ensure that we select appropriate blocks to make the blend. We look for batches that show true Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc characteristics, complete with zest and explosions of typical flavours, yet rich and full with a long, sweet fruit and African sweet grass finish.

"The Mistress" Waipara Riesling

"The Mistress" takes its name after the small area in a vineyard where some of the grapes were picked. The original owner's partiality was ensconced in a cottage in a far flung corner of the vineyard, which was once a vast sheep station, he called in daily for a nice cup of tea and conversation. And so the wine was named after the nature of the partiality - The Mistress.

From the Waipara region, about three hours south of Marlborough, with its cool nights this is an ideal place to grow Riesling grapes.

We seek lime and lemon, nuances of blossoms and good acid balance. Riesling from this region tends to be more generous: it develops a rich luscious palate with tones of honey and limes and lemons, that improve with age.

The wine goes down well at any table decked with Asian food containing coriander / cilantro, ginger, lime and lemon. Soft sweet layers of honey appear after about two years on the bottle. Japanese food with pickled ginger is also a favourite accompaniment.

"Boyszone" Marlborough Pinot Gris

The same climate that gives us the great Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc flavour also gives us some unique Pinot Gris flavours. Pinot Gris is mutation of Pinot Noir, with none of the petulance and demands of its red cousin!

Pinot Gris fruit is grown right across Marlborough, but we source the Boyszone from the Rapaura area where the flavours tend to be a bit more tropical. The slightly wetter climate and riverbed soils give us some extraordinary textures that we are able to carry through to the bottled product.

The flavours of Pinot Gris are delicate, ranging from subtle soft fruit to hints of herbaceousness. We manage the canopy to capture the full patina of flavours. Palate weight is really important in the style of wine, filling and lining the mouth with soft acids and the delicate fruit notes.

We aim for a style that could be described as more Alsatian, capturing the unique Marlborough and New Zealand nature of this grape. Pinot Gris is a good food match, but more importantly, with its bright and attractive features, it can be enjoyed all by itself.

"Kim's Favourite" Gisborne Chardonnay

Gisborne has always held a soft spot for Kim, especially the flavours of Paul and Jenny Tietjen's block. Combine those with the boundless joy of Peter and Robyn Briant's grapes, and you could quite possibly caress peaches and cream from nose to back palate.

The flavours from Gisborne are joyously forward and tropical, and can most certainly stand up to the toast of American oak. With time, they mould and meld together, integrating fruit and toasty oak beautifully.

Stylistically we are trying for a full-bodied style with ripe fruit and low acid giving the indication of sweetness to the wine. One hundred per cent barrel fermented the wine has balanced fruit to oak ratio, and the malolactic adds longevity in the palate. A real Chardonnay drinker's Chardonnay, and can easily stand up to the best that Californian Chardonnays have to offer.

"Rise-nShine Creek" Central Otago Pinot Noir

Rise-n-Shine Creek is in the heart of the old gold mining area of Bendigoand what we believe to be one of the best grape growing sites in Central Otago. We use a variety of clones and rootstocks from a vineyard in the heart of Bendigo. The three clones are mostly hand harvested individually and kept separate during their fermentation in small tanks or insulated tubs.

We look for a wine with many layers and many flavours, some only show themselves readily, or grow into themselves over time in a bottle. The region yields dark, intense wine with purple touches, brooding and developing over time.

We tend to use the Dijon clones, and 777 and 776 in particular give lovely hints of violet on the nose, backed by ripe cherry and slight smokiness. To describe this wine as "generous" requires contemplation, complex is a better word. Layer packs upon layer: cherry is backed up by raspberry, which is underscored by mulberry, ably propped up by rich mushroom, smokey hints, sweet fruit and a soft round finish.

This one reads like "To Kill a Mocking Bird", more beauty is revealed every time it is revisited.

Te Awanga Merlot

Te Awanga is in the far-flung corner of Hawke's Bay, just this side of Cape Kidnappers. The pace is a little slower down there, people taking time over a glass of wine and the view over the lush vineyard toward the ocean. Pasted on land's end is a row of cottages, filled with locals, artists and campers. The Pacific Ocean is just there, vast and quiet and less than a kilometre or so away.

Here, where the nights are cool and the reflection of light in the sky is a gift, is where we grow our premium Merlot. Because it is cool, the ripening period is long and the grapes gather flavour hanging out, waiting to reach optimum ripeness before picking.

From this vineyard, we get a Merlot filled with ripe red berries, with cigar box flavours (from the American oak), usually backed by hints of bacon fat, which may be influenced by the proximity of the vineyard to the sea. Merlot flavours are soft, and so to create a framework for the Merlot to lean on we blend in a small proportion of Cabernet Franc. It gives whiffs of minty flavours and structure to the wine.

Merlot is something New Zealand does well – elegant and Bordelaise in profile, we look for this wine when we tire of the big, bold reds!