Hans Herzog “Spirit of Marlborough”

While Marlborough basked under blue skies throughout summer, the fruit on the vines was developing into something magical. Week after week of warm, dry weather followed on from a cooler than average start to the season. The long warm ripening season ended in a beautiful Indian summer perfect for these Bordeaux varieties. We hand-picked perfect physiologically ripe grapes at a low yield of 700g/vine.

Hans’ Comment:

Perfectly healthy, destemmed grapes allowed for a long cold soak to extract the superb flavours and beneficial antioxidants of the skins. I then let the must naturally progress through a long wild yeast fermentation and extended post maceration. After gentle pressing, the young wine was transferred into partly new French Barriques where it underwent the second natural malolactic fermentation. The minimal oxygen exchange over a long 30 months of maturation in the same barrels made all the difference. The wine and wood had time to marry together to form a richer, more complex and textured wine, able to age for many years in the bottle. We like you to enjoy this stately flagship wine at its full potential, very much like a “Grand Cru” Pomerol with many years of bottle ageing. And so we did, under perfect condition in our barrel hall for a further 3 years but without the hefty price tag! No fining. No filtration. Natural goodness.