AKITU PINOT NOIR BLANC 2024

Winery notes (2024 Vintage)
"Light lemon with a green gold hue. The faintest of pink blushes emerges when you swirl the wine around the glass, like some kind of prismatic phosphorescence. Immediately alluring and inviting, perfumed but warm and slightly heady with a confluence of floral and fruit derived aromatics. Yin and Yang with yellow rose petal and citrus blossom, musk stick and cinnamon, clover honey and pickled ginger with a distance scent of Manuka flowers on the Ying. To the Yang; stone-fruit, rainer cherries, ripe beurre bosc pear, nougat and a hint of quince. All cast across drying river rocks, on a warm and still afternoon.

Electric entry with tensile acidity driving grilled grapefruit and preserved lemon fruit through layers of subtle baking spice, nougat and pistachio complexity. Hints of red cherry and cranberry sorbet add dimension. The quince carries to the palate with additional custard apple and lemon butter. Trademark saline texture builds with time giving way to a rosewater infused tannin scaffold. While there is a lightness and elegance, some serious underlying structure provides depth and an expansive flavour profile. The finish is like glacial silt laced with mica – powdery yet slippery – mineral and silk carried on zesty acidity giving persistence and focus. Absolutely unique. Break out the hibachi for some miso coated scampi & squid – arigato gozaimasu.

Winemaking: This wine is all about the vineyard and minimal winemaking interference. So, the question is, how to best capture the sense of place and variety with so few levers to pull? Picking in the cool of the morning and whole bunch pressing to ensure minimal phenolic extraction. Gentle juice handling and into ferment with fluffy juice solids has given us fruit expression with a cosy overlay of silky yeast derived texture on a harmonic tannin base. Partial ferment in old French oak adds another dimension of complexity."

19/20 Joelle Thomson, October 2025 (2024 Vintage)
"Akitu Pinot Noir Blanc is a white wine with presence and mana; a Pinot Noir with a twist, in both colour and taste. It's made 100% from clone 777 Pinot Noir. Hand picked grapes were harvested in the cool of morning to retain freshness in the finished wine. The grapes were whole bunch pressed to minimise extraction and then fermented, partially in old French oak which builds subtle complexity – think: fresh fresh nutty aromas in lush layers in a medium bodied, dry white wine. The finish is long, commanding and offers wine drinkers a lot to love."

5 Stars & 94/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, October 2025 (2024 Vintage)
"Elegant and stylish, the delicately lifted bouquet shows white-fleshed peach, lime zest, grapefruit, and oatmeal nuances. It's taut and focused on the palate, displaying a linear mouthfeel and refined texture, splendidly supported by vibrant acidity, finishing persistent and mouth-watering. At its best: now to 2030."

5 Stars & 94/100 Candice Chow, CandiceWineChat.com (2024 Vintage)
"​Entirely clone 777, partially fermented in old French oak with the majority in stainless steel, this results in an elegantly textured, silky palate that flaunts pure fruit and juicy acidity. Lifted aromas of strawberry, quince, cherry blossom and stony minerals."

92/100 Cameron Douglas MS, November 2025 (2024 Vintage)
"A chilled glass of this wine sounds ideal for the warmer weeks and months ahead. Fresh, crisp and dry with flavours and textures of lemon and white peach, a wet stony mineral, hay and white spice with fine fruit tannin textures, lees and a backbone of acidity. A vibrant mouthfeel with a decent palate squeeze, persistent flavours with a medium length and complexity. Well made with best drinking from day of purchase through 2028."