Greywacke was created in 2009 by Kevin Judd, an early pioneer in Marlborough winemaking whose ground-breaking wines helped put this small New Zealand region on the world wine map. The name ‘Greywacke’ was adopted by Kevin for his first Marlborough vineyard in Rapaura, nodding to the prevalence of rounded greywacke river stones in the vineyard’s soils. ‘Greywacke’ is a sedimentary rock widely found in Marlborough, consisting of hard grey sandstone and darker mudstone layers.
Fruit was sourced from several prime vineyard sites in Marlborough’s Southern Valleys and the central Wairau Plains (specifically Woodbourne, Renwick and Rapaura). Soil types vary from the young alluvial soils of Rapaura and Renwick, which contain high proportions of New Zealand’s ubiquitous greywacke river stones, to the older and denser clay-loams of the Southern Valleys. The majority of the vineyards were trained using a two- or three-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) trellis, with the balance on the divided Scott Henry canopy management system.
Picture a summer picnic table – vases of white blossom, a vibrant salad of aromatic herbs with soft, yellow peach, crunchy pear and a squeeze of juicy lime; apricot sponge cake and custard tarts – a sweet-scented array of ripe deliciousness. On the palate, flavours of honeydew melon and white nectarine mingle with savoury notes of crushed seashells and a hint of chalky minerality. A fruit-driven Marlborough style with generosity and weight, it delivers a luscious sense of ripeness that finishes with a mouthwatering lemon-sherbet zing.
