Cable Bay Vineyards has five vineyards located throughout the western end of Waiheke Island. 

The vineyards have been designed and developed incorporating leading edge viticultural practices. The row orientation has been positioned to match the natural contours, with an environmentally considerate approach to vineyard establishment and ongoing management. The vineyards feature a higher density of planting than conventional vineyards. They are planted in leading selections of Merlot, Chardonnay, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon vines, with trellis design that optimises fruit quality. More recently, we have also planted Pinot Gris, Viognier and Syrah.  These varieties are proving to excel in the Waiheke terroir.

To complement the portfolio of Waiheke Island wines, Cable Bay sources grapes from grower-friends in Marlborough and Central Otago.  This enables our winemaking team to make the most of New Zealand's diversity in climate and geography while producing a complete range of wines.

The goal of all the vineyards is the production of premium wines that express the unique attributes of the individual vineyard sites.

 

 

Harvest 2010 Report

 

Waiheke Island

We all thought that the 2008 vintage would be almost unbeatable, then along came 2010, maybe the best vintage yet for the island.

The season started a little cool resulting in lower than usual yields, which only further enhanced the excellent quality of this seasons fruit. Basically it did not rain from January until late April giving winemakers the luxury of picking when grapes were at their very best. It reminded me of when I made wine in the Napa Valley; we just didn’t need to worry about the weather.

The harvest was our earliest to date starting with Pinot Gris on the 24 February and finishing with Cabernet Sauvignon on the 27 April. All grapes were harvested in perfect condition, with small bunches and lower than usual juice yields. The resulting wines show excellent concentration and length. 

As the season was so good we took the opportunity to select out a few special parcels of chardonnay, viognier and syrah which we hope will make our reserve designation. With such perfect fruit we have taken the opportunity to allow many of the wines to undergo wild fermentation, adding an extra dimension of interest to the finished wines.

 

Marlborough

This year we bought in a select harvest of Sauvignon Blanc from the Mc Alpine vineyard located at the beginning of the Omaka Valley. The grapes were harvested a little later than usual on the 10 April. After dejuicing in Marlborough at a friend’s winery the juice was tankered to our winery on Waiheke for fermentation. We produced a number of different tanks and barrels of Sauvignon from which we feel confident we will produce our first Reserve Sauvignon Blanc for release later this year.

 

Central Otago

There was great excitement on the 6 April as the Pinot Noir from Cromwell arrived at our winery on Waiheke Island. By chilling the grapes after hand picking and then quickly transporting in a chilled truck, the fruit arrived on the island in perfect condition. With 3 clones of Pinot and a selection of new oak we have produced an array of small lots from which we will blend the Cable Bay and Reserve wines. Many of the wines have been fermented with wild yeasts, and tasting them in barrel now it is clear this will be a great year for our 2010 Pinot Noir, following on from the 2009 vintage which was our first from Central Otago.

 

 

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