FRAMINGHAM PINOT GRIS 2025

Last year’s Framingham Pinot Gris 2024 took out the Trophy for Champion Pinot Gris at the 2025 National Wine Awards of Aotearoa New Zealand, and we’ve now got the brand-new 2025 release in store.

Framingham have long taken a slightly different approach to Pinot Gris, drawing inspiration from Alsace and putting plenty of emphasis on texture and complexity rather than simply making something light and fruity.

The 2025 is made entirely from fruit grown on the Framingham Estate in Marlborough, with seasoned oak and extended lees ageing helping build texture and richness. There’s pear and red apple on the nose, with subtle ginger and custard notes through a supple, gently textured palate. A little residual sweetness is balanced by fresh acidity and a fine, pithy structure through the finish.

At $19.99, this remains one of the more interesting and distinctive Pinot Gris options on the shelf, and a very worthy follow-up to last year’s Trophy winner.

Winery notes (2025 Vintage)
"A restrained, layered aromatic profile with suggestions of pear, and red apple. An elegant supple palate with subtle textures showing elements of custard and ginger notes. There is an intriguing interplay between residual sweetness, a gentle acid profile and pithy phenolic structure whilst finishing with vivid quartz like persistence.

The fruit for this wine was sourced entirely from Framingham Estate in Marlborough. The soils here are made up of ex-riverbed gravels and have been under organic management for over 10 years. The blocks are pruned using a 2-cordon VSP training method. Yields were reduced by extensive fruit-thinning to promote concentration and leaf plucking was employed to give the fruiting zone exposure sunlight and aid with ripening.

We are inspired by Alsatian styles when making this wine. 30% of the fruit was destemmed and kept on skins for 12 hours to impart flavour and texture before the juice was extracted. The remainder was whole bunch pressed giving us some contrasting components. Juices were treated oxidatively, settles for 12hrs then racked cloudy to seasoned oak barriques (80%) and stainless-steel tanks (20%). Components were aged on full ferment lees to promote mouth feel for 10 months prior to blending and bottling in March 2026."

Reviews for the 2024 vintage below…

5 Stars & 94/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit (2024 Vintage)
"This is beautifully composed and expressed, with poached pear, rockmelon, Gala apple, and warm-spice aromas on the nose. The palate delivers a fleshy texture backed by bright acidity, making it wonderfully harmonious and supple with a lengthy, delicious finish. At its best: now to 2028."