Vintage 2021 was an excellent year for pinot gris, we had a wide array of vineyards and blocks within vineyards to select our Exiled from.
In the end Exiled came from the Beast Vineyard, a high elevation volcanic influenced site along with the original St Helena plantings on Ponui Island. Another year without botrytis has given a wine of exceptional purity.
Pinot gris fruit for the Exiled comes from the St Helena clone of pinot gris and is grown on both Waiheke and Ponui Islands. The fruit is lightly crushed and pressed then settled in tank before being racked with light solids into tank for fermentation. A mixture of uninoculated and cultured yeast ferments are used with each vineyard fermenting slowly until the desired balance of acid, tannin and sugar is reached. The wines are then chilled to below zero to stop the fermentation before blending, the blend is held at low temperatures in the cellar until bottling to retain as much of the natural carbon dioxide as possible.