The Hermit Ram Skin-Fermented Sauvignon Blanc 2019

This wine is an exercise in teasing out unique New Zealand-ness from our country's workhorse grape.

Taken for two sites in the Waipara Valley, the fruit is destemmed and fermented on skins for around 6 weeks. 20% is fermented as whole clusters separately and added into the blend at pressing time. The skins are not worked hard, they are included in order to gain all the aromatics possible from the fruit, and to promote a fine thread of phenolic to keep a tension and length in the final wine.

Bottled straight after malolactic with no Sulphur addition, this wine is almost in the rawest form possible. It is our cloudy, saline ode to the New Zealand coast line.