We hope you are enjoying the excellent autumnal weather – the vines certainly are! There are a few developments at Black Stilt Wines that might interest you.

The first is that we have now revamped the labels on the Riesling bottles so that they are now “ice bucket proof”. We have also taken the opportunity to lift the colour scheme somewhat and to add the International Riesling Foundation taste profile to the labels. This grades the wines according to their residual sugar content and acidity to help consumers, since Riesling is made in such a multitude of styles. Our wines are made by Jen Parr who last year won the prestigious “Winemaker of the Year” award last year, and we consulted her on where to put the arrow on the scale. We are currently selling both the 2018 and the 2019 Rieslings, as the former is rated on the boundary between medium dry and medium sweet, while the 2019 is rated on the boundary between dry and medium dry. 

The second is that we have sold out of the 2014 Pinot Noir, and have released the 2016 Pinot Noir. Both the 2015 and 2016 Pinot Noirs are available on the website.

The final new development is that we have been carefully husbanding a pallet of the 2011 Pinot Gris as an experiment in ageing. The only white wines generally worthy of ageing are a Riesling or a Semillon, both of which have high acidity which holds the wine together, and contributes to the flavour development. Our Pinot Gris from the Waitaki has much higher acidity than other Pinot Gris wines, and we wanted to know how they would develop. The 2011 was a superb example when sold in 2012 with beautiful aromatics and a fine minerality. We have been tasting it over the last decade, and while it went through a very flat period a few years ago, it is now developing a whole new flavour profile-income ways reminiscent of a Chardonnay. It benefits from breathing after opening (as do aged Rieslings), and indeed we found one bottle in the refrigerator at the vineyard after lockdown which had been opened 2 months earlier – it was delicious!

A couple of weeks ago Nola and John had an enjoyable day serving Black Stilt Wines to many of the attendees at the annual Twizel “Salmon and Wine Festival”. This year between 3000 and 4000 people packed the venue on a perfect late summer day, listening to music and trying the many delicacies on offer. We can thoroughly recommend the event should you be planning a South Island trip next summer.

We offered the 2011 Pinot Gris to the public for the first time at the Twizel Festival and it was very well received, in fact we sold out of it there. If you would be interested in buying some, please get in touch via email.