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Waitiri Station was farmed for many years by the Cook family, and it was Waitiri owner Esmond Cook who sponsored detailed climatic studies to prove the potential of his Gibbston terraces, backdropped by the famous Remarkable Mountains, for a vineyard. He believed the old adage that "where you can grow great stone fruit, you can grow great grapes."
An 8ha vineyard was planted in 1993 and from those beginnings we have grown with our vines to a company that is totally dedicated to providing superior pinot noir and pinot gris with consistent quality.
As well as harvesting the grapes from the original vineyard in the Gibbston Valley, our grapes are also sourced from L'Attitude Vineyard, based in the Cromwell basin. This top quality vineyard is planted in pinot noir, pinot gris and riesling, ensuring excellence in grape quality and the ability to blend wines from two geographic sub regions.
The world's southernmost wine region is found in Central Otago, New Zealand, in the same 45 degree latitude as top winegrowing regions in France. In 2006, about 2,000 hectares of Central Otago land was planted in grapevines, 70 percent in pinot noir. Although many of the vineyards are covered in snow in the winter, the long hot summers are balanced with cool night-time temperatures encouraging a slow ripening, perfect for developing intense fruit flavours, characteristic of the area.
Central Otago has a long and romantic viticulture tradition. During the 1860's goldrush the first wine was bottled from a vineyard near Clyde spearheaded by French immigrant Jean Desire Feraud. His foresight led to today's widespread planting of wines in Central Otago.
Our soils are mainly free draining loess, schist and uncemented gravels. Annual rainfall is approximately 590mm and we are about 350 metres above sea level at 45 degrees South latitude. Central Otago is fortunate enough to have sunshine hours averaging 1,921 to 2,250 hours per annum, which ensure ripeness and good acid structure for the resulting grapes. All grapes are hand harvested and low cropped, to ensure quality. |
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