Nelson Aromatics impressing New Zealand's leading Masters of Wine

Nelson’s Blackenbrook Vineyard is a quintessential New Zealand producer: a small, family-owned winery, owned by nice people quietly getting on with making perfectly nice wines.
Ursula and Daniel Schwarzenbach farm 8ha of vineyards in the Moutere clays, where they produce a tidy suite of wines ranging from the expected: sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, pinot gris, gewurztraminer and chardonnay, to the slightly less expected: pinot blanc and montepulciano.
Wines are unfined and vegan-friendly. The recent release of their aromatic whites yielded a selection of competent, fruit-focused, approachable wines, showcasing 2019’s warm, sunny harvest.
There are just 11ha of pinot blanc grown in New Zealand and not much of that is bottled as a single variety. The 2019 Pinot Blanc has a spicy nose akin to pinot gris but with more stonefruit than treefruit. A juicy palate, quite broad and ripe, with a clean, dry, slightly savoury finish.
The 2019 Gewurztraminer has a richly aromatic with rose petals, Turkish Delight and quince. A little hoppy too. The off-dry palate is more delicate than nose would lead you to expect, pear-drop and Turkish Delight with light phenolics on the finish.
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