Wine Regions | Central Otago
Central Otago is New Zealand's highest and the world's most southerly wine region. Wines with altitude is the slogan of one winemaker. It is also New Zealand's only true continental climate with greater extremes of daily and seasonal temperatures than are found in any of the country's maritime regions. Soil structures also vary dramatically from those of other regions with heavy deposits of mica and schists in silt loams. A new, but aggressively expanding wine area, Central Otago is now New Zealand's seventh largest wine region.
Pinot Noir is the dominant grape variety, a status that seems certain to be maintained if demand and accolades are any measure. Chardonnay ranks second with Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling a distant third and fourth. The wines of Central Otago have a purity, intensity and vibrancy that seems totally appropriate to anyone who has visited the region and breathed the pure mountain air.
We feel that we are sourcing grapes from one of the best sub-regions within Central Otago, that being the Bendigo (home of Shrek the sheep) area. Bendigo is at the northern end of lake Dunsden tucked under steep ranges to the north. The great thing about the Bendigo area is that we don’t just get great flavours and intensity from the grapes but we also get consistency year on year. This a due to the frost risk being lower than that of other Central Otago areas. Our flagship Pinot Noir, "Rise-n-Shine" is sourced from this region.
