Ra Nui Wines Winery

Ra Nui Wines is dedicated to producing premium hand crafted wine from uniquely favoured vineyards within the Marlborough region. We believe that “the wine is in the grape” and so we focus on the vineyard and the grape, and we grow our wine using the time honoured traditions of Sun, Soil and Passion. We are small and focused without constraint, and this allows us the hands on intensity that only a small winemaker can have. Grapes are hand picked in the vineyard and transported direct to the winery. At the winery further hand selection takes place discarding any unwanted fruit before transferring to the press. We then further ensure that we retain all purity of texture and flavour by whole bunch pressing for all white wines in order to minimise skin contact resulting in juice with fine texture and maximum flavour. We see ourselves as “guardians” of the grape and adopt a low key non interventionist approach to our winemaking. We have three company vineyards, two are situated at the foot of the Wither Hills and one at high altitude. The Summer Valley Vineyard lies directly to the north in a gently sloping valley and is planted primarily to Sauvignon Blanc and also four different clones of Pinot Noir. The soils are primarily Wither Hill soils with gravel, stone and loess silt deposits. Our other company vineyard is the Cob Cottage Vineyard, situated just to the north of the Wither Hills and fronting onto State Highway, 3kms south of Blenheim township. As well as Sauvignon Blanc this vineyard is planted to various aromatic varieties as well as being close planted with Syrah. Both these vineyards are in a “dry” area , with rain shadows created by the surrounding hills and receive minimal annual rainfall. Finally, our recently planted Delta Vineyard. This exciting vineyard, although reasonably centrally located in the middle of the Wairau Valley, is one of the highest elevation vineyards in Marlborough. This vineyard sits in a God given perfectly formed North facing bowl, the elevation of the site was formed thousands of years ago with the movement of the nearby seismic plates resulting in an uplifting of this section of the valley. This elevation with low vigour soil, comprising shallow topsoil with some gravels and clay loams, results in a long and cool growing season, far cooler than the lower valley floor. The main hillside has been planted with ten different clones of Pinot Noir on various low vigour rootstock. We have also planted a further small North facing slope with Pinot Gris, again with the intensive close planting. In order to manage this special vineyard we have a very narrow (98cm) wide tractor to negotiate the narrow rows, and we also undertake applying canopy sprays by helicopter. A very special vineyard requires intense dedication.We are a member of Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand, an organisation which promotes environmentally focused vineyard practices, and which also aims to provide a quality assurance guarantee from the vineyard to the winery. We like to tread softly in the vineyard in the belief that it is a sustainable resource that the generations to come will enjoy, just as we have.

 



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