Framingham - Andrew Hedley’s notes

Minerality.
The soils on our vineyard as you know are old river bed. They (generally) consist of hand sized boulders and gravels of greywacke, (a sedimentary, hard, grey sandstone and mudstone mix containing quartz and feldspar) which most of the mountains are composed of around here, that have been deposited by the river along with some silt as its course has meandered over the years. In some parts of Europe where grapes are grown, you can seem to get a very strong influence of “mineral” flavours from the soils, for example ‘slatey” flavours in the Mosel through to smoky, fired aromas and flavours on more granitic and volcanic soils that to me can sometimes smell like what you might imagine to be the very breath of Vulcan him/herself! In many cases where these ‘terroir effects” are at their most pronounced they can be dominant aromas and flavours and I also categorise them as “dry” flavours, which I often think goes to explain why some quite sweet wines, such as Riesling from parts of Germany and Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer from Alsace can appear much drier than they actually are. For wines from Marlborough, I think we have a more “gentle” minerality which is certainly imparted from those stones. It think you can both smell and taste the note - the aroma reminds me of going out into the road after a summer rain shower, when the sun comes out and the pavement starts to dry - that’s the smell - damp/drying concrete. The flavour can be evoked by imagining that you have taken a stone from the river bed, dipped in the river to clean the dust off, and then licking the water off the stone. Clearly I don’t do that (often), but I think it conjures up the right impressions to convey that sense of minerality. Since the mineral tone is not maybe as overt as in other regions around the world, the structure and balance of some of our wines can serve to emphasise the mineral flavour.

Sauvignon Blanc.
We are after a wine that is identifiable as Marlborough, but with the wet river stone mineral notes to be readily noticeable. it’s generally a relatively taut wine c/f many of the more broad, modern Marlborough SBs - this structure to me accentuates minerality (and food friendliness!). For the 07 and 08 wines, the fruit source is very similar, our own estate block and a row of vineyards along the north bank of the Wairau River - almost a mini sub-region in itself. There is a natural devigoration over there, it can be a little cooler and wetter due to localised effects, as well as a little frost prone in spring which often serves to give a moderate flowering and hence set relatively low crops. The extra water from rainfall is good for the canopy as well as nitrogen pick up from the soil - research has shown that these conditions are good for the passionfruit/grapefruit flavour development. There are 3 terraces that lead down to the river stopbank - we take grapes from the middle and top terraces which are stony but with some clay in them which helps to retain water. It may seem counter intuitive, but irrigation of sauvignon blanc on lighter, poorer soils is an absolute necessity as any yellowing of the canopy in the early -mid growing season causes the flavours in the grapes to become like boiled vegetables - not what’s required.

Riesling.
Several things should make us interesting as a Riesling producer in NZ. First, we have some of the oldest Riesling vines in NZ at 28 yrs old. These were planted on phylloxera resistant rootstocks which meant that they weren’t pulled up when phylloxera arrived in NZ, and they escaped the government sponsored vine pull as well. Does grafted rootstock negate terroir effects? Many people believe that rootstock only makes a difference in the first 10 years of a vine’s life, after that, everything behaves the same. So who can say? We are unique in NZ in making four distinctly different styles of Riesling from the same single estate vineyard - we don’t look outside our own estate for Riesling. Dry and Classic Riesling components are aged without sulphur for 2-3 months after ferment, brings on flavours, structure and colour - however this shouldn’t imply that they are low sulphur wines as they aren’t - they are about-the-right-amount-of-sulphur-at-the-moment-for-what-we-are-trying-to-achieve wines!
Dry Riesling. Current release is 2004 - something a little different as well in that we are putting a maturing wine into the marketplace. As it is a wine that’s essentially about bottle age, we can hand pick and bunch press grapes (no botrytis) which gives a taut, crystalline structure in the juice and finished wine that takes a long time to come around. Usually 2 passes through the vineyard, we use free run juice only for extra austerity!  The style would be akin to Alsace grand cru Riesling in that it is mean and steely and tastes of rocks when it’s young and needs to age (in Germany it would be roughly a Spaetlese trocken style). Bottle age brings on some lovely toast and honey notes in the bouquet to go with the mineral. I like to describe this as imagining burning the toast a little in the morning, then scraping it into your stainless steel sink and washing it away with water. The palate picks up some lovely cream/condensed milk flavours and reminds me of a bowl of tinned mandarins and cream.
Classic Riesling. Is a blend of base wines from all three of the subsections on the estate - up to 20% hand pick in here too (we could do more but the price would have to go up). Machine harvesting gives that hint of furry phenolic that makes the wine more approachable when young. Will age beautifully but doesn’t need it, a more generous wine that can be drunk young and fresh. You have described it Doug as a Kabinett style which I think is fine - but would be a Kabinett from a warmer area where they tend to have higher alcohols at 10-10.5%. I see it as a Spaetlese halbtrocken or feinherb style - we hang the grapes out a bit longer than for dry and select, maybe two weeks, with the RS being at the top end for halbtrocken and the alcohol providing just that bit more body you can get in these wines. It’s a floral wine with jasmine and honeysuckle and maybe you can imagine lemon and orange blossom too.
Select Riesling. Small production at max 140cs - introduced 2003. Maybe 3 passes through the VY, bunches selected on their colour - bronze on the front, green on the back and no botrytis. Bunches green on the front stay on the vine for later styles. Inspiration is Mosel Spaetlese style with low alcohol being very much the key, eg the 07 we tasted is 8%, 2005 was highest at 9% and 08 is 7.5% (mission accomplished!). This wine is the stoniest of all our Rieslings - it must be a balance/structure thing. Some nice lemon curd flavours too.
Noble Riesling. Is a labour of love - in every way a hand made wine. Small production of 2500 bottles max - often less. Fermented in all sorts of weird and wonderful containers from old oak barrels, stainless steel barrels to 50L beer kegs and 23L glass carbouys. Style is Auslese Gold Capsule or Starred (see Dr Loosen website for some nice notes on these sorts of things), in that there is clean juice in there as well and the alcohol is low, 7-8%. Away from the “mainstream” sweet wine style in NZ (if there is one) because of its pretty taut acidity and balance of flavours. Most people who taste it get it - apart from wine show judges on the odd occasion that this wine has found its way into shows (we want no more of that - as the song says). Complex wine that’s easy or hard to describe depending how you look at it - if you can think of a flavour then I’m betting we can imagine it in there somewhere. Great wine between courses - like a sorbet - as it’s not too alcoholic.

Note on Praedikat comparisons. The modern way seems to be to downgrade wines by at least one or two praedikat levels - so I have tried to make comparisons on that basis. 15-20 years ago, Select Riesling may well have been an Auslese wine in some vintages.

Pinot Gris. 100% hand picked, bunch pressed. Now a single estate wine. Style is Alsace and definitely not Grigio (at least commercially popular Grigio - there are some nicely textured, full flavoured Grigio wines from Italy as you well know - I would love to know how Grigio rose made it’s bow though… ) We have moved away from the mainstream a little by introducing wild ferment in old wood and stainless barrels with batonnage weekly for 7-8 months on about 25% of the wine to add texture, complexity and an element of seriousness (?) to the wine. We will continue to work down this line and maybe have some solids in the ferments as well. A versatile food wine that I like to describe as a bit like apfelstruedel which conjures up a meld between baked apple, raisin, spice and pastry flavours, maybe with a dash of cream or custard as well after a bad day if you like.

Gewurztraminer. 100% hand picked, bunch pressed, single estate wine, small blend at app 200 cs max. Aromatic wine that can be a little over the top. We have tried to tone it down this year with 20% wild ferment in old oak with weekly batonnage which brings in lovely textural qualities as well as flavour complexity. Rosewater, musk, exotic spices and stonefruit flavours are watchwords to my mind. Good with pork.

Pinot Noir. Aiming for a feminine style (ie charming, elegant, graceful etc) without big structure. However - no short cuts taken. Low cropped fruit, 100% hand harvested. 5 days cold soak but off skins when ferments are dry rather than any extended maceration. Only app 23% new oak - not looking to add to much structure with wood and want to keep varietal perfume as well as savoury character. 10 months in French oak only.